Pusan National University is a multidisciplinary research institution located in South Korea’s second-largest city, Busan (formerly Pusan).
It was founded by the South Korean government in 1946 as one of the flagship universities designed to lead the development of the country and initially had only two faculties, humanities and fisheries.
It has since grown to cover all the major disciplines in academia, with 15 colleges and a range of graduate schools.
The university has a development strategy under which it has identified a number of areas of speciality, including mechanical engineering, naval architecture and ocean engineering.
Other focuses of research activity include molecular sciences, longevity life sciences, renewable energy and innovation in transport systems.
The development strategy includes a “best researcher system”, under which the academic who conducts the most successful research project in a three-year period receives a cash prize of 20 million won (£14,000).
Academics who have studies published in the leading periodicals Nature, Science and Cell as lead authors receive 50 million won, while co-authors get 10 million won.
As well as its main site in Busan, a city of 3.6 million people, the institution operates campuses in the cities of Yangsan, specialising in healthcare and biosciences, and Miryang, focusing on nanotechnology and biotechnology.
Since 2009, Pusan National University has operated a global studies programme, in which all teaching is conducted in English and is delivered by native English speakers.
The aim of this programme, the university says, is “to enable students to experience a high-quality education curriculum that is on a par with programmes offered abroad”.
