Establishment of a ‘glocal shared campus’ linked to local economics |

Creation of new industries such as mobility and bio
Leading the creation of a youth entrepreneurship innovation hub complex
Ranked 3rd in the nation in regular competition rate this year

Soonchunhyang University has maintained its top 3 ranking in the nation in terms of regular admissions competitiveness for two consecutive years. Despite the decline in the school-age population and the university’s financial crisis, Soonchunhyang University is evaluated as having made steady progress since its opening in 1978.

According to Soonchunhyang University on the 29th, competition among universities to attract new students is fierce, and the regular admission competition rate has ranked high for the past two years. Last year, it ranked 2nd in the country with 9.77 to 1, and this year it ranked 3rd in the country with 7.69 to 1. In addition, the Ministry of Education selected the Leading University for Industrial-Academia-Research Cooperation (LINC 3.0) project, attracted the Ministry of Science and ICT’s National Leading Research Centers (MRC, CRC, RLRC), established a carbon-neutral department and a bio-convergence department by expanding the number of students admitted by the Ministry of Education, and launched the 4th stage of Brain Korea. (BK) Project was selected as a graduate school innovation project.

The value of universities around the world has also risen. Soonchunhyang University ranked in the top 100 overall in the 2024 World University Impact Assessment announced by THE (Times Higher Education). THE is an annual evaluation of higher education institutions published by The Times, a London newspaper in the UK. In the 2025 Asian University Evaluation announced by QS, a global university evaluation agency, it ranked 288th overall. The QS Asian University Evaluation is conducted using 11 indicators, including academic (researcher) reputation, employment (companies) reputation, faculty-to-student ratio, number of citations per paper, and internationalization. It ranked first among private universities in the Chungcheong region and fourth among private universities outside the metropolitan area. The university plans to increase its value and global competitiveness in order to attract excellent students, improve student satisfaction, secure diverse employment paths, and expand industry-academia research cooperation.

Preparations for selection as Glocal University 30 are also underway. Soonchunhyang University, which was selected as a preliminary designation university for the Glocal University 30 project, established the ‘Chungnam Glocal Industry-Academic-Research Shared Campus’ in June, where the region, industry, academia, and research fields share resources. The campus was built on 110,000 m2 (33,000 pyeong) of new university land. The university’s strategy is to lead the creation of specialized fields such as mobility, medibio, and carbon-neutral new industries and the creation of a youth start-up innovation hub complex so that the region, industry, and research community can grow together on campus. Through this, the plan is to lead Chungnam’s venture companies and future new industries, increase technological competitiveness, and realize Chungnam as a place where young people stay. The campus will feature glocal education, a research sharing innovation complex, a research and development (R&D) cluster park, and a campus art valley. We share research infrastructure and specialized curriculum with universities in the Chungcheongnam-do region. To this end, residents, universities, industries, and venture investment institutions have jointly created a fund of 203 billion won.

Soonchunhyang University, which was selected as a SW (software)-oriented university in 2021, is receiving a total of 15 billion won in support from the Ministry of Science and ICT, 2 billion won per year for up to 8 years. Last year, the Metaverse Game Department was newly established to nurture talent needed for the artificial intelligence and software industries.