■ HUFS Inks an Exchange Agreement with the National Institute of Ecology

HUFS held a signing ceremony for an exchange agreement with the National Institute of Ecology (NIE) at a conference room on the 10th floor of the Centennial Complex on the Global Campus on June 3, 2021 (Thu.) at 2 p.m.

Moderated by Jun Yong-Gap, Head of HK+ National Strategies Research Project Agency of HUFS Institute of Latin American Studies, and attended by HUFS President Kim In-Chul and NIE President Park Young-Mok, the signing ceremony was held in the presence of Vice President of Global Campus Shin Jung-Hwan, HK+ Research Professors Cho Gu-Ho and Jang Yu-Un, NIE Preservation Assessment Research Director Lee Byung-Yoon and NIE Climate Ecology Research Director Jung Kil-Sang.

Under the agreement, HUFS and NIE will join hands in various exchange and support programs to realize their future vision of the harmonious coexistence of nature and humanity, jointly address global environmental issues and conduct joint research for interdisciplinary collaboration between the departments of the HK+ National Strategies Research Project Agency and NIE.

Before the signing ceremony, Vice President of Global Campus Shin Jung-Hwan and NIE President Park Young-Mok held a meeting at Conference Room #308 of the Centennial Complex. The meeting was attended by some 20 researchers from the HK+ National Strategies Research Project Agency and NIE officials, who discussed practical cooperation measures. As their first joint endeavor project, the two institutions plan to translate a book on the ecology of Dokdo Island into Spanish and Portuguese and distribute it abroad within this year.

■ HK+ National Strategies Research Project Agency of HUFS Center for International Area Studies Signs an MOU with Mstory Hub

Humanities Korea Plus (HK+) National Strategies Research Project Agency (Head Kang Jun-Young) of HUFS Center for International Area Studies signed an MOU with Mstory Hub (President Lee Ki-Soo), a digital content creation company, on June 28, 2021 (Mon.). Since its foundation in 2015, Mstory Hub has supplied web novels, webtoons and other web-based content to the nation’s leading online portal service providers. It has entered into the Chinese, Japanese and Thai markets and is currently working to explore new markets in Russia and Central Asia.

HUFS HK+ National Strategies Research Project Agency and Mstory Hub signed the MOU under the expectation that the Agency’s research agenda (The Pursuit of Transnational Cooperation and Communication: the Identification of Cultural Points of Contact with the Northern Hemisphere and the Establishment of a Cultural Hub to Lay the Foundation for Korean Reunification), especially its key research theme “Research for Building a Eurasian Cultural Hub”, and Mstory Hub’s digital content and platform exploration efforts can complement each other and boost their interests. Under this industry-academia cooperation project, the two institutions will work together in the areas of regional studies in Russia and Central Asia and local research data collection.

■ HUFS Graduate School and Law School Sign an MOU with Rutgers Law School

HUFS Graduate School (Dean Kim Shin-Young) and HUFS Law School (Dean Jung Han-Jung) signed an MOU with Rutgers Law School, New Jersey, United States. Under the MOU, HUFS Law School graduates with a JD degree and HUFS Graduate School graduates with a Master of Laws are granted exclusive admission into a two-year fast track JD program run by Rutgers Law School in Newark. The two institutions reached their first MOU last August for bilateral student and faculty exchange. This MOU is their second MOU for mutual cooperation to offer qualified HUFS graduates a chance to join a two-year accelerated JD program at Rutgers Law School, instead of the existing three-year JD program.

A renowned public law school in New Jersey, Rutgers Law School has locations in Camden, southern New Jersey, and Newark, north of New York City. The Newark Campus, which signed the MOU with HUFS, has unique strengths thanks to its adjacency to New York City. As one of America’s larger law schools, Rutgers Law School has around 1,000 new students enrolled each year. It is where the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who is well known for her first use of the term “gender”, served as a professor for 10 years.

Those who complete the 2-Year Accelerated JD Program for Foreign Lawyers at the institution earn eligibility to apply for the bar examination in any state of the United States. The JD program originally required two years of professional experience. The MOU, however, offers HUFS graduates with a JD degree or a Master of Laws exclusive qualification to apply for the two-year fast track JD program. HUFS applicants are also allowed to submit their GRE scores instead of LSAT scores. In addition, Rutgers Law School will provide all possible support for bilateral cooperation with HUFS, such as raising USD 25,000 in its annual scholarship fund for HUFS graduates to give them the same tuition assistance as that provided to New Jersey residents.

These terms and conditions of the MOU clearly demonstrate the growing international status of HUFS, which recently ranked fifth in the nation in the results of the 10th National Bar Exam and is fast emerging as one of the nation’s top law schools. At this juncture of ever-intensifying globalization, the subsequent opening of the Korean legal services market to foreign competitors and the growing need for overseas market exploration, the MOU is expected to serve as an excellent opportunity to strengthen the global competitiveness of HUFS Law School.