From left: Ms. Park,
Prof. Vilas, Prof. Cho, Dr. Pritam and Ms. Kim.
Officials representing one of South Korea’s top
universities and one of its leading telecommunications companies
recently paid a visit to AIT to strengthen mutually beneficial
partnerships. Prof. Namjae Cho, Director of ICT MBA and Professor of
MIS at Hanyang University’s School of Business (http://www.hanyang.ac.kr/english/),
accompanied by Ms. Sanghee Park, Researcher, Graduate Program in MIS,
and Ms. Hye Jin Kim, Manager, Leadership Development Team, SK telecom
(http://www.sktelecom.com/),
visited AIT on August 27.
The South Korean visitors were welcomed to the Institute by
Prof. Vilas Wuwongse, Vice-President for External
Relations; Dr. Pritam K. Shrestha, Head-ERCO; and Mr.
Tenzin Rabgyal, Program Officer, ERCO. As part of the visit,
they also met with Dr. Babara Igel, Dean of the School of Management
(SOM), and other faculty members.
Prof. Cho explained details of Hanyang University’s
extensive exchange programs with various Asian universities and was
keen to point out its solid partnership with AIT and SK telecom. “This
year, we sent 15 students to different universities in
Asia, out of which three students are currently enrolled at
AIT’s School of Management. These three students are
employees of SK telecom, and their studies are supported by the
company,” Prof. Cho explained.
During the meeting ideas were explored for improving and
strengthening the current partnership. In South
Korea, Hanyang University maintains many beneficial
partnerships with private sector firms. SK telecom is one such example.
The firm believes such investments in educational programs increase its
employees’ capacity in management, engineering and technology, and
result in a more competitive company. The two parties also discussed
revising and extending the current MoU between two
institutes.
Ms. Hye Jin Kim, Manager, Leadership Development Team, SK
telecom informed AIT officials of the possibility of partnership in
various areas such as ICT, telecommunications, and energy. Dr. Barbara
Igel suggested having “corporate lectures” conducted by SK Telecom as a
way to develop partnership. Other suggestions for joint research
projects were probed in the meeting, as was the possibility of having
some additional staff sent to AIT to attend short-term training or
graduate studies. SK Telecom has its own professional and career
development plan which facilitates staff to study at various
universities around the world. SK Telecom is the number one
telecommunications service provider in the Republic
of Korea. SK Group (http://www.sk.com/) is the fourth-largest
conglomerate in Korea and SK telecom is one member of the
group.