| Yonsei University | |||||||||
| Native Name: | 연세대학교 | ||||||||
| Motto: | (Latin) "Cognoscetis Veritatem et Veritas Liberabit Vos" (John 8:32) (English) "The truth will set you free" (John 8:32) Korean: 진리가 너희를 자유케 하리라. (요한복음 8:32) | ||||||||
| Established: | 1885 | ||||||||
| President: | Dong-Sup Yoon | ||||||||
| City: | Seodaemun-gu, Seoul (Sinchon Campus), Songdo, Incheon (International Campus) | ||||||||
| Country: | South Korea | ||||||||
| Faculty: | 1,712 (2022)[1] | ||||||||
| Administrative Staff: | 1,166 (2022) | ||||||||
| Students: | 29,832 (2022) | ||||||||
| Undergrad: | 18,200 (2022) | ||||||||
| Postgrad: | 11,632 (2022) | ||||||||
| Campus: | Urban | ||||||||
| Colours: | Royal blue | ||||||||
| Mascot: | Eagle | ||||||||
| Module: |
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Yonsei University is a Christian private university in Seoul, South Korea. It is part of the SKY universities.
The university was established in January 1957 through the union of Yonhi College (연희전문학교; 延禧專門學校) and Severance Union Medical College (세브란스 의과대학; 세브란스 醫科大學). This was a result of a lasting bilateral cooperation between the colleges that began in the 1920s. The institutions were the first of their kind in Korea. Yonhi College was one of the first modern colleges, founded as Chosun Christian College (조선기독교대학; 朝鮮基督教大學) in March 1915. Severance has its roots in the first modern medical center in Korea, Gwanghyewon (광혜원 廣惠院, House of Extended Grace), founded in April 1885. As a tribute, the name "Yonsei" was derived from the first syllables of the names of its two parent institutions, "Yon; 연; 延" from Yonhi College and "Sei; 세; 世" from Severance Union Medical College.
The student body consists of 26,731 undergraduate students, 11,994 graduate students, 4,518 faculty members, 6,788 staff, and 257,931 alumni. Yonsei operates its main campus in Seoul and offers graduate, postgraduate, and doctoral programs in Korean and English.
The Yonsei University Medical School dates to April 10, 1885, when the first modern hospital to practice Western medicine in Korea, Gwanghyewon, was established.
The hospital was founded by Horace Newton Allen, the American Protestant missionary appointed to Korea by the Presbyterian Church in the USA. The hospital was renamed Chejungwon (제중원 濟衆院, House of Universal Helpfulness) on April 26.[2] As there appeared difficulties, the church appointed Canadian Oliver R. Avison to run Chejungwon on July 16, 1893. Gwanghyewon was financed at first by the Korean government, while the medical staff was provided by the church. However, by 1894 when the First Sino-Japanese War and Gabo reforms (갑오개혁) took place, the government was not able to continue its financial support, thus management of Chejungwon came fully under the church. In 1899, Avison returned to the US and attended a conference of missionaries in New York City where he elaborated on the medical project in Korea. Louis Severance, a businessman and philanthropist from Cleveland, Ohio, was present and was deeply moved. He later paid for the major portion of the construction costs of new buildings for the medical facility. Chejungwon (제중원) was renamed Severance Hospital after him.[3]
Chejungwon (later Severance Hospital) was primarily a hospital, but it also performed medical education as an attachment. The hospital admitted its first class of 16 medical students selected through examinations in 1886, one year after its establishment. By 1899, Chejungwon Medical School was independently recognized. Following the increase of diversity in missionary denominations in Korea, collaboration began to form. Chejungwon began to receive medical staff, school faculty, and financial support from the Union Council of Korean Missionaries (한국연합선교협의회; 韓國聯合宣敎協議會) in 1912. Accordingly, the medical school was renamed as Severance Union Medical College in 1913.
The rest of Yonsei University traces its origins to Chosun Christian College, which was founded on March 5, 1915, by an American Protestant missionary, Horace Grant Underwood sent by the church. Underwood became the first president, and Avison became the vice president. It was located at the YMCA. Courses began in April with 60 students and 18 faculty members.
Underwood died of illness on October 12, 1916, and Avison took over as president.
On August 22, 1910, Japan annexed Korea with the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910. The first Governor-General of Korea, Terauchi Masatake, introduced the Ordinance on Chosun Education (조선교육령; 朝鮮敎育令) in 1911, and subsequently Regulations on Professional Schools (전문학교 규칙) and Revised Regulations on Private Schools (개정사립학교 규칙) in March, 1915. These were intended to stifle private education in Korea; any establishment of schools, any change in school regulations, location, purpose, coursework, or textbooks must all be reported to and authorized by the governor-general, and all courses must be in Japanese.
Severance Union College struggled to meet these requirements; school regulations and coursework were altered, faculty evaluated and enlarged, its foundation and its board clarified. It received its recognition as a professional medical school on May 14, 1917.[4] In 1922 the governor-general Makoto Saito issued Revised Ordinance on Chosun Education (개정조선교육령). It called for stricter qualifications for the faculty, and Severance reacted obediently and further recruited more members with degrees from accredited institutions in North America and Europe. Japan did not completely ignore the competence of this institution; in 1923, Severance recovered its right to give medical licenses to its graduates without state examination, a right that had been lost since 1912. Moreover, in March 1934, the Japanese Ministry of Education and Culture further recognized Severance in allowing its graduates the right to practice medicine anywhere in Japanese sovereignty.
Oh Geung Seon (오긍선; 吳兢善) became the first Korean president of Severance in 1934.
Ordinances in 1915 and 1922 also affected the fate of Chosun Christian College. Intended as a college, it was not legally recognized as such, since the Ordinance of 1915 did not allow the establishment of Korean private colleges. Hence, Chosun Christian College, now renamed Yonhi College, was accepted only as a "professional school" on April 17, 1917, then a joint project from diverse missionary denominations. However, Yonhi had formed the organization and faculty becoming a university. It consisted of six departments: humanities, agriculture, commerce, theology (this department did not open due to differences among the founding denominations), mathematics and physics, and applied chemistry. The ordinances, furthermore, prohibited coursework in Korean history, its geography, or in the Bible outside the department of theology. The council of missionaries reacted with A Resolution on the Revised Educational Ordinance (개정교육령에 관한 결의문)[5] which carefully pointed out that Japan did not apply such rigorous absurdities to its private schools in mainland Japan.
After the March First Independence Movement swept the peninsula in 1919, Japan somewhat relaxed its grip on Korea, and this is reflected in the Ordinance of 1922. It ceased the arbitrary control of governor-general over the coursework and the qualification of faculty members, and altered its stance on strict separation of religion from all education. It also recognized Yonhi as a professional school equal to its counterparts in Japan, and permitted the Christian programs and the Bible in its coursework. Nevertheless, Japanese literature became mandatory.[6] Under Japanese intervention, Korean history was taught under the name Eastern History, and the Korean language was taught whenever possible.[7]
The Department of Agriculture was closed after 1922 when its first graduates left Yonhi. Efforts were made to revive this department, without much success. However, Yonhi installed a training center for agricultural leaders on campus, with impressive results.[8]
Yonhi was liberal in its admission of non-Christians. Its policy was to admit non-Christians relatively freely and allow the majority of Christian students to gradually influence and assimilate them.
In the late 1930s, Japan again shifted its policy towards Korea to incorporate it into its scheme of expansionism. In August 1936, the new Japanese Governor-General Jirō Minami began the assimilation of Koreans, to exploit them for military purposes; The governor-general enforced Sōshi-kaimei and Shinto on Koreans, and began to recruit Koreans for Japanese war efforts. In April 1938, the third Ordinance on Chosun Education ordered the acceptance of Shinto, the voluntary removal of the Korean language in coursework, and further intensification of Japanese and Japanese history education. Yonhi Professional School did not follow suit and opened courses on the study of the Korean language in November 1938. This was not tolerated for long: In March 1940, Yonhi was forced to open courses in Japanese studies for each department and each year. In 1938, English classes began to come under pressure following a deterioration of relations between Japan and the United States; coursework in English was forbidden and texts of English writers were censored. In 1938, President H.H. Underwood accepted the practice of Shinto to avoid Yonhi's potential closure. Governors-General pushed Yonhi to refuse financial support from United States and financial difficulties mounted.
Severance was approved as a college by the liberated Korean government in 1947. Since most medical institutions in Korea were run by the Japanese, medical staff and faculty were in short supply after their departure. Thus, many members of Severance staff and faculty left to assist other institutions. Severance took up the role of student leadership and was outspoken against US-Soviet occupation. In 1950, during the outbreak of the Korean War, Severance functioned as a field hospital until Seoul was overrun. Severance fled quickly, but some faculty members and students were unable to leave in time; some were killed and others were captured then exploited by the advancing North Koreans. Severance seniors joined the military as army surgeons. Although Severance returned to Seoul for a while after its recapture, it had to flee again in December on a LST in Incheon.[9]
When Severance arrived in Busan, its medical school joined the wartime college, a temporary body. Meanwhile, the Severance facility in Seoul received heavy damage, as it was in the center of the city near Seoul Station. Severance Hospital again returned on April 1, 1952, and its medical college on June 12, 1952.[10]
The US military neglected the restitution of Yonhi and held other plans to use it as a military hospital or judiciary training center. With time, nevertheless, Yonhi came to be viewed as a missionary institution that was dispossessed by the governor-general.[11]
Yonhi was able to open its doors again on January 21, 1946, and, on August 15, 1946, was recognized as a university. Baek Nak Jun became president. It was a period of transition, and Yonhi University faced obstacles including financial ones; after 1947, things settled down. At the time, Korea lacked teachers, and Yonhi was asked to provide education and training; the Temporary Training Center for Secondary School Teachers in Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry (임시 수물화학과 중등교원양성소) was established. In December 1948, plans for the unification of Yonhi and Severance began to take form.[12] The Graduate School was formed in July 1950.[13]
At this point, all progress came to a halt due to the Korean War. The university suspended all courses on June 27 and recruited student soldiers. The North Korean military advanced into the Yonhi campus and established its headquarters there. This was a cause of severe damage to the campus when the US military recaptured Seoul in September. The university reopened following the recapture of Seoul, but it was once more on the run to Busan in December. In February 1951, Yonhi joined the wartime college; however, it kept an independent body and opened its own courses on October 3, 1951. On April 15, 1953, Yonhi began its work on restoration; Yonhi returned to its campus in the fall.[14]
In 1957, Severance Medical College and Hospital and Yonhi University merged to form Yonsei University.[15]
| Joong N: | 2 |
| Qs N: | 3 |
| The N: | 2 |
| Arwu N: | 3–6 |
| Usnwr N: | 2 |
| Line 1: | 0 |
| Qs A: | 8 |
| The A: | 17 |
| Usnwr A: | 42 |
| Line 2: | 0 |
| Qs W: | 56 |
| The W: | 76 |
| Usnwr W: | 205 |
| Arwu W: | 201–300 |
Yonsei is one of Korea's three "SKY" universities, which are the most prestigious in the country, with the other members being Seoul National University and Korea University. Admission of these "SKY" universities is extremely competitive. Acceptance rate of Yonsei University in early admission(수시) is below 1%. In general, exhibiting 0.5% of academic achievement (Korean SAT) is needed to apply for Yonsei regular admission(정시).Inside Korea, admission to a SKY university is widely considered as a determination of one's career and social status.
Yonsei ranked 56th in QS World University Rankings 2025, and 1st among private universities (8th overall) in QS Asia University Rankings 2024.[16] Yonsei also ranked 78th in THE World University Rankings 2023, and 1st among private universities in Asia. In THE World University Rankings by Subjects, Yonsei ranked 1st among Korean Universities in four subjects: Business & Economics, Social Sciences, Clinical & Health, and Psychology.[17] In 2016, Yonsei University was ranked 105th overall, 24th in Social Policy and Administration, 12th in Modern Languages and 51–100 in economics by QS World University Rankings.[18] It was ranked 104th worldwide and second in the nation by Center for World University Rankings in 2017[19] and in 2018 Academic Ranking of World Universities placed Yonsei University at the 20th position in Asia/Pacific region and third in South Korea.[20] Yonsei was ranked 96th in the world according to an SCI paper published in 2007.[21]
Yonsei is one of four Korean universities ranked in all three ARWU World University Ranking, QS World University Rankings, and The Times World University Ranking in 2010–13, along with Seoul National University, KAIST, and POSTECH). Yonsei University was ranked 16th in Asia in 2012 and continues to rise rapidly in global rank: 112 in the world in 2012; 129 in 2011; 142 in 2010; 151 in 2009; 203 in 2008; and ranked globally 236 in 2007 by QS World University Rankings.[22] [23] Yonsei was ranked the first Korean university to be in the Economists 2011 Top 100 Full-time MBAs (#76); US News, 2011 World's Best Universities: Asia #18; and UK Financial Times 2011 Top 100 EMBA (#57).
Yonsei University was ranked 36th in Reuters' "The world's most innovative university", which was announced in September 2015.
Yonsei International Summer School (YISS), usually held from late June to early August, started in 1985, and it has grown to over 2,000 students from over 30 countries.
Winter Abroad at Yonsei (WAY) is a relatively new program, started 2013. The winter program is a 3-week program which runs from late December to early January.
Yonsei University's Exchange/Visiting Student Programs offer opportunities to students who plan to study for a year or a semester in Korea.
The "ㅇ" and "ㅅ" in the University arms are derived from the first letters of "연세" ("Yonsei" in Korean).The circle "ㅇ" represents the ideal of a complete and well-rounded person, while the "ㅅ" symbolizes the upward-looking pursuit for scholarly excellence. In addition, the "ㅇ" stands for Heaven; the "-" represents the horizon of the Earth and "ㅅ" signifies "man," as expressed in the Chinese character (人). The open book stands for truth; the torchlight signifies freedom; and the arms, as a whole, protects these two core principles of the university.[27]
The university's mascot is an eagle,[28] and its color is "royal blue".[28]
Yonsei University is founded on Christian principles[29] and purporting to "produce Christian leaders with the spirits of freedom and truth".[30] The Christian character of the university is well illustrated by its history as a school founded by American Protestant missionaries and by its school motto from the Bible, "The truth will set you free" (John 8:32). As of 2007, the Board of directors of Yonsei University should include a member from four Korean Christian organizations: The Presbyterian Church of Korea (대한예수교장로회), the Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea (한국기독교장로회), the Korean Methodist Church (기독교대한감리회), and the Anglican Church of Korea (대한성공회).[31] In Korea and Japan, Christian schools founded by Christian organizations or individuals, especially by Western missionaries, such as Yonsei University, are commonly called mission schools.
A school's founding ideology and a student's freedom of religion has been debated in South Korean society for some time. As of 2009, a student does not have to be an active Christian to be admitted to Yonsei University.
In 2010, Yonsei University entered an agreement with The United Methodist Church, in which the university will serve as the regional office for the Methodist Global Education Fund for Leadership Development.[32]
A large number of Yonsei degree programs, including UIC, ASD, and GSIS (in Seoul and YIC) have extensive tuition scholarships for international students that cover tuition and accommodation.[33]
Akaraka is the official college festival for Yonsei students that is usually held on May. During the festival, many prominent singers and celebrities perform.
It is strictly forbidden by the university code of conduct to discriminate against students from non-Christian backgrounds, yet as a missionary school, Yonsei undergraduates are required to attend weekly chapel service for four semesters to qualify for graduation.
There are more than 100 clubs at Yonsei University; the clubs listed here do not represent all clubs on campus.
Yonsei University is a member of the Korea University Sports Federation (KUSF) and its men's football/soccer, men's basketball, baseball and men's ice hockey teams participate in the KUSF U-League.[35] Its mascot is the eagle and its student-athletes are thus informally known as "Eagles".[36] [37]
See main article: Korea University–Yonsei University rivalry. Each claiming to be the best private university in South Korea, Yonsei University and Korea University have had a long-standing athletic rivalry. The rivalry is well-illustrated by famous annual sports matches between them. This event, starting in 1925, is called KoYon Jeon (고연전; 高延戰) when Yonsei University hosts the matches and YonKo Jeon (연고전; 延高戰) when Korea University hosts the matches. However, the above official name is actually used only for official appearances such as broadcasting and newspaper reports. 'YonKo Jeon' is commonly used in Yonsei University and 'KoYon Jeon' is generally used in Korea University. The annual one-time matches include soccer, baseball, basketball, rugby, and ice hockey. With the founding of the U-League, the two institutions also meet in the league matches for all sports except rugby.[37]
Many students in each university come to this event to cheer for their teams. Such the importance of athletic match-ups between the two universities in university culture that celebrities and professional athletes who are alumni have been spotted attending matches or referencing it in interviews.[38] Prior to the YonKo Jeon, students from both universities also gather for the Yonsei-Korea University Joint Cheering Event (합동응원전) where students practice their cheers and show school spirit.
Until 2012, Yonsei recorded 18 winning seasons, 8 draws, and 16 losses. In 2012, out of the five sports, Yonsei University lost three (baseball, basketball, soccer) and won two (ice hockey, rugby). In 2017, Yonsei university won all five games. In 2018, Yonsei university won three games (rugby, soccer and basketball) and lost one (ice hockey). Baseball was cancelled due to the rain. In 2020, all sports matches were cancelled due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Yonsei University Seoul Campus is composed of Sinchon Campus and International Campus in Songdo, Incheon. From 2011, Yonsei University adopted a Residential College (RC) Program at the Yonsei International Campus (YIC). Most freshmen of Yonsei University are required to live in an International Campus dormitory and complete RC programs for a year. After that, they move on to the Sinchon campus in Seoul to complete their education.[39]
Yonsei's Sinchon Campus covers 250acres located about 6 km off west of central Seoul. The Sinchon Campus is home to most of the academic departments of Yonsei University, and presents a beautiful combination of historical and high-tech buildings.[40]
Based on the May 8, 2006 agreement between the city of Incheon and Yonsei University, the Yonsei Songdo Global Academic Complex (now the Yonsei International Campus) is an anchor of the R&D aspect for the Songdo district and the Korean education and research industries. Construction was in two phases with the first phase including the Global Campus, Joint University Campus, R&D Campus, and the Global Academic Village. Phase one was completed in 2010 and phase two began the next year in 2011 with further expansion.
Currently, most freshmen of Yonsei University stay at the International Campus for one year to complete their RC program requirements. In addition to freshmen education, a number of academic programs are offered at the Yonsei International Campus, including undergrad and graduate programs offered from the School of Integrated Technology (College of Computing), College of Pharmacy, Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences Division (Underwood International College), Integrated Science and Engineering Division (Underwood International College).
The dormitory of the International Campus is composed of 12 houses. Until 2013, there were eight houses: Avison, Yun Dong-Joo, Muak, Yoongjae, Underwood, Baek Yang, Appenzeller (previously Aristotle), and Allen. In 2014, four more houses were founded: Evergreen, Wonchul, Chi Won, and Cheongsong.
The sections Beginnings, Under Japanese Rule (I), Under Japanese Rule (II): The War Machine, Liberation and the Korean War are largely based on 연세대학교백년사 100 Years of Yonsei University History, Yonsei University Press.