Graduate students and professors from several U.S. universities will arrive here Sunday to study Seoul City’s administrative policies.
According to the Seoul Metropolitan Government on Thursday, four professors and 20 students from Central Michigan University, Florida International University and California State University, San Bernardino will see firsthand the policies during a weeklong fieldtrip.
The trip is part of a city program in which public administration graduate students from U.S. universities are shown the capital’s policies and culture.
Students of the program study Seoul’s successful administrative policies through a graduate course that focuses on the city.
Participants are scheduled to visit Seoul’s Transport Operation and Information Service and the Mapo Resource Recovery Facility during their stay.
They will also have the opportunity to visit the 120 Dasan Call Center, and World Cup Stadium. They will ride the electric buses that operate on Namsan. On top of that, students will also learn about different cultural aspects as well.
About 130 students from 10 universities have taken part of the program since 2010.
During the trip students will also create presentations, offering suggestions to the city and will also write a research paper based on the trip. Officials say that if the students’ suggestions are good, the city will reflect them into their policies.
“We plan to make Seoul the center of information exchange for public administration, as we hope to expand the program to offer courses in graduate schools in the U.K. and Canada, not just the U.S.,” said one city official.
By Robert Lee (
robert@heraldcorp.com)
