Pukyong National University

PKNU, 20 Years of Development
- University indexes showed a drastic rise

Pukyong National University, facing the 20th integration anniversary this year, appeared to show rapid growth in several educational indicators.

On 6 July 1996, the National Fisheries University of Busan and the Busan National University of Technology merged to form the Pukyong National University, the first consolidated university between national universities. During twenty years since the merge, several indexes including the number of foreign students and the amount of budget, scholarship and research funding have increased up to 55-fold. 

The biggest improvement was seen in the area of international student, from 18 students from 5 countries to 995 students from 69 countries after 20 years, having increased 14-fold in the number of countries and 55-fold in the number of foreign students.

The scale of scholarship has also increased more than 9-fold from ₩4,980,000,000 to ₩47,360,000,000. The university dormitory now boasts the capacity to house 3,240 students in 1,636 rooms, from 462 students in 145 rooms right after the merge, having risen eleven-fold in the number of rooms and seven-fold in the number of boarding students.

The amount of research funding has surged an over six-fold from ₩8,280,000,000 to ₩51,870,000,000, and the budget amount has risen about 4.5-fold from ₩69,480,000,000 to ₩311,900,000,000. The number of books in the library has been enhanced more than three-fold from 327,000 to over a million. 

With all this development, in 2015, PKNU took first place in the biomedicine category of the CWTS Leiden Ranking, which announced the world’s top 10% most cited research papers. The number of research paper by full time professors indexed in the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) and the graduate employment rate were ranked the best among the national universities and the A Group national universities respectively.

Moreover, PKNU was selected as the site for the World Fisheries University, affiliated university of United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and also for other national projects including the initiative for COllege of humanities’ Research and Education (CORE), the College for Lifelong Learning, the Research Village, the Leading Universities for Startup Business, and the Center for Ocean & IT Convergence Bionics Technology Development and Research, enhancing its educational and research competitiveness and the region’s business climate, and is evolving into a new platform for the official development assistance (ODA) through education. 

At 11 a.m. on May 9, PKNU held the ceremony to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the foundation and the 20th of the consolidation. The 70th anniversary was decided following the history of the university since the liberation, in accordance with the act provided for the establishment of national university.  

At the ceremony, historical video of the university for the 20 years of consolidation was aired, and many prizes, including the awards to long service employees, the student rewards, the PKNU Scholarship Awards, the New Researcher Awards, the Industry-University Cooperation Awards, the University Development Achievement Awards, the Alumni Awards, were given out. <Pukyong Today>