Korean Job Discussion Forums

[baedaebok]

What is Soongsil University's philosophy? They ask job applicants to agree with their founding philosophy. But I couldn't find what that is.
They were founded by missionaries and use Christian terminology on their website to describe themselves.

BDB

[faeriehazel]

The Christian principles of "truth" (in a religious sense, I think) and "service" (as in serving other people). That's what it says on the Korean website at least. It seems that they are super Christian and want to teach their students to serve others. They also have a pro-reunification philosophy.

[tardisrider]

I used to work at Soongsil.

Just for the record, the school is fairly religious--students are required to go to chapel and do various church related things-- but there was never any obligation or pressure on the NETs to participate.

Nothing is perfect, of course, but it was quite a good place to work--almost all of the NETs stayed for several years, which is probably the best indicator that people who work there were fairly happy. There was a wide mix of ages and nationalities--they wanted actual teachers and had no problems hiring older people or kyopos or others who sometimes have problems getting jobs in Korea.

One thing--starting salary was low, but annual raises brought it up pretty quickly.

I left a few years ago, so I don't know what may have changed.

[baedaebok]

Is the religious atmosphere similar to other Christian universities (e.g., Chongshin or Handong)? "Atmosphere" means mandatory student chapel attendance, accepting only committed Christian students, required bible credit courses, etc.

BDB

[tardisrider]

Regarding the atmosphere, I cannot compare it to other universities. I know that students are required to attend chapel. Many of them told me that it was their favorite class, because they could show up, have their attendance counted, and then sleep in the relatively comfortable chairs.

I don't think there were required bible classes and so on beyond the chapel.

I don't know how "religiously committed" the students were supposed to be in order to gain admission to the university, but students were absolutely no different than students anywhere else--there was drinking and partying and hangovers and even the occasional class to attend and all that stuff. I never met a single person there (that I can recall) who was overt or pushy about religion.

It was a complete non-issue as far as the other NETs and I were concerned.

[Julian88Tex]

And chance you've heard anything good or bad about their Unigwon "Soongsil Baird Academy"?

Thanks!