A plan to build an apartment for foreign professors in the Songdo International Business District will be pushed forward. (Image : Yonhap)
INCHON, Dec.28 (Korea Bizwire) – A plan to build an apartment for foreign professors in the Songdo International Business District will be pushed forward.
According to the local office of Incheon Free Economic Zone, a plan to build an apartment exclusively for foreign professors, will be laid out due to the increase in the number of students in the Global Campus at the Songdo International Business District.
The Global Campus is in the form of a university, where competitive majors of foreign universities are gathered together. It is an education model that has been tried in the domestic area for the first time.
As the State University of New York, Korea opened in March 2012, in March 2014 the George Mason University, Korea opened. The Global Campus of Ghent University and the University of Utah Asian Campus opened in September 2014.
Based on the current increase rate of international professors, authorities of Incheon are assuming that there is a need for 20 apartments by next year, and 80 more in the long term.
They are in consideration as to who will be in charge of building the apartments; the Incheon Metropolitan Corporation, or a special purpose company(SPC) established for the project.
The local government will discuss the matter with the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy, which oversees the International Business District during the first half of 2016. Also, opening the gym, swimming pool and auditorium to the local residents and ways to advance settlement conditions of foreigners will be looked into.
Local government officials comment that through building the apartment for foreign professors and opening the facilities to local residents, they hope to achieve cohabitation within the two communities. They also plan to enlarge employment opportunities of the students at the Global Campus by providing them with internships from renown international organizations.
By M.H.Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
