From April 23 through 28, 2018, the Korea Foundation invited 18 distinguished figures in the education sector from 17 countries to Korea. They included Patrick Jason Faber, Minister of Education, Youth Sports and Culture and Deputy Prime Minister of Belize; Pham Quang Minh, Rector of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities (USSH), a member university of the Vietnam National University (VNU) in Hanoi, Vietnam; and Mahmut Ak, Rector of Istanbul University in Turkey.

Minister Faber is the youngest cabinet member of the current administration in Belize, and very influential in the educational, political and economic policies of the Central American country. Keenly interested in South Korea’s advanced education sector, he sought for ways to increase cooperation in education between Belize and South Korea.

Headed by Rector Pham Quang Minh, the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, in Hanoi is one of the leading Southeast Asian universities with advanced Korean studies programs. The university boasts the highest Korean studies research capacity in Vietnam. Aside from the active economic cooperation between Vietnam and South Korea, 23 Vietnamese universities have departments of Korean studies or Korean language with around 250 faculty members.

In addition, Istanbul University, Turkey’s largest national university led by Rector Mahmut Ak, opened its Department of Korean Language and Literature in 2016. The delegation also included Jose Humberto Calderon Diaz, Director of the School of Language Sciences at the University of San Carlos in Guatemala. The students’ interest in Korean language and Korean studies is so high that as many as 600 of them are currently attending Korean language classes.

While in Korea, the invited guests visited major universities and relevant institutions to be briefed on government-sponsored scholarship programs and the current status of international cooperation in education and e-learning in South Korea, thereby exploring ways to expand education cooperation and enhancing their understanding of Korea’s advanced education system, utilizing ICT (information and communications technology).