President's Message
“Greetings to you all. I’m Joong Ryul Kim, the President of Cyber Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.”
With the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the winds of change are sweeping in and rattling the foundation of analog education. As some world scholars predicted it would, education is making the move from offline to online. Meanwhile, educational spaces are expanding their boundaries, transitioning from traditional college campuses to the unlimited expanse of the Internet. Our society's aging population, combined with the rapid progress being made to knowledge systems, is increasing the need for continued education and lifelong learning.
In our information and intelligence-based society, cyber universities have created equal opportunities for education and taken the quality of higher education around the world to new heights. Cyber universities have overcome the time and spatial limitations of existing educational systems and created a new, innovational education platform called “blended learning,” which combines online and offline education.
In 2004, Cyber Hankuk University of Foreign Studies was founded based on the principals of “truth, peace and creativity.” CUFS is Korea's only cyber university that focuses specifically on foreign languages, combining language, social, cultural and regional studies. Furthermore, CUFS brings together the nation's best professors, who embody both academic and practical knowledge, while utilizing optimal IT technology in a ubiquitous learning environment. In these ways, we have strengthened our position as a future-oriented educational institute that is leading the way in convergence education.
Along with these efforts, we have also upped our efficiency in responding preemptively and actively to societal changes. In light of the rapidly changing paradigm of higher education, falling complacent means falling behind. With that in mind, we established the first cyber Graduate School of TESOL along with our Lifelong Education Center to meet societal demands for continued education and lifelong learning. Using differentiated approaches to education, including our ▲“Foreign language + culture” global education, our ▲“language + practical study” convergence education, and our ▲“practical education + certification programs” to name a few, we succeeded in creating a high quality, solid educational program. Not only did we grow internally, but by building physical classrooms in 2013, we spread our external reach as well.
We spent the last 10 years laying the groundwork. Now, the next 10 years will be our time to grow and build upon our successes. It is said that, “Education is a plan spanning 100 years.” Under that mindset, we will set our sight 100 years into the future, building long-term plans and maintaining our broad outlook.
Dreams stop short at thinking, but action makes dreams a reality.
The CUFS teaching staff and I will do our best to make your dreams a reality as you head towards the future.
We support your dreams and your passions.
Thank you.
President Joong Ryul Kim
Born in 1955, he graduated from the Economics Department at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. After completing his studies, he went on to earn a Doctorate degree in Economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the United States.
Since 1988, he served as a professor in the Economics Department of his alma mater, while presenting his thesis to the Korean Economic Review, the Korean Association of Social Policy, the Korean Social Security Association, and the Association of Korean Economic Studies. He also contributed to academic advancements in the fields of economics and statistics by acting as an expert to the National Statistics Office, a consultant for the Seoul Development Institute, and head of the Social Statistics Research Lab under the Consumers Union of Korea.
Following his time as chairman on Hankuk University of Foreign Studies’ board of trustees, president of the professors’ council, and head of the Institute of Economics and Business Research, he was named the 5th president of Cyber Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in 2017.
