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PaiChai University officials visit MSU
Minot State University hosted a very successful visit by officers from PaiChai University in Daejon, South Korea, Dec. 11-12. The purpose of the visit was to establish a partnership between the two institutions. Representing PaiChai were HyeKyung Lee, provost at PaiChai University, and Chang In Lee, director of the TESOL Program at PaiChai Univeristy, and Yae Sock Roh, professor of marketing and hospitality at Central Michigan University.

"MSU would benefit by increasing the diversity of students on the campus and because MSU students would have more exposure to students from other countries," said JoAnn Linrud, dean of the College of Business.

PaiChai University, which offers both undergraduate and graduate programs, was established by Christian missionary Henry Appenzeller in 1885. Lee said the institution was a high school when the country was under Japanese rule, but it was revitalized as a college in the 1950s after South Korea gained its independence.

PaiChai’s Appenzeller School of Global Business will begin its new program next semester with 40 students: 10 Americans, 10 Europeans, 10 South Koreans, and 10 from other Asian countries. They will study for three years at PaiChai and will spend their fourth year abroad. Because the program is just being established, it would be several years before students from PaiChai came to Minot State. PaiChai is also interested in establishing partnerships with other American universities. MSU is one of the universities that has a profile that is attractive to PaiChai officials.

According to Provost Lee, the Korean university is interested in sending students to study at MSU in part because Minot is a good quality university in a nice, safe, moderate-size American city. Lee has found that the English spoken here is good, standard English. In addition, parents of students at PaiChai are concerned about safety when they send their children abroad, said Lee.

The provost, who has visited the United States several times, said that PaiChai is highly globalized, with a number of international students. Many of its students study abroad. Both Lee and Linrud said that international experience is vital for people entering the business field today.

PaiChai University’s new business program will be taught in English. Linrud said there could be opportunities for MSU faculty members to teach at PaiChai and for PaiChai faculty to teach at Minot State. MSU already has partnership agreements with SIAS International University in Zhengzhou, China, Kadir Has University in Istanbul, Turkey, and Telemark University College in Skien, Norway.