The South Korean government has given N.C. State, along with three or four other universities in the world, the opportunity to bring educational programming to a new community outside of Seoul, according to Provost Larry Nielsen.

Nielsen said this new area, called the Incheon Free Economic Zone, or IFEZ, is similar to that of Centennial Campus “on a huge, huge scale.”

According to Nielsen, the Korean government has already completed part of the IFEZ’s construction. The area will eventually house half a million people and feature industrial opportunities, focusing initially on biotechnology and information technology.

“All of the business will also be done in English and according to Western business principles,” Nielsen said. “It’s really an interesting thing.”

Nielsen said IFEZ will give NCSU the opportunity to establish a strong partnership in Korea to advance common interests in education and research.

“It may end up with an N.C. State campus in IFEZ, but there is a lot of talking, a lot of thinking and a lot of working to do before we get to that point,” he said.

Nielsen spoke with the former secretary of education of South Korea at last year’s Emerging Issues Forum.

“There was standing with government and with the leadership of South Korea for this idea, so then we started approaching it more seriously,” Nielsen said.

According to Nielsen, the Korean government chose NCSU for IFEZ because of the University’s strong partnership with the country.

“They really like us best out of the U.S. universities because of the nature of our degree programs and the nature of our collaborations with Seoul National and other universities over there,” Nielsen said. “We’ve also always had a lot of students from Korea here, and they’ve gone back to Korea and they’re very successful, so N.C. State is a known university in Korea and is highly respected.”

After discussing this opportunity, Nielsen and a delegation from the University visited Korea in mid-October, early November 2007 and December 2007, the Korean government passed a budget that included money to support the partnership between NCSU and IFEZ.

While Nielsen urges that nothing has been approved yet, he said that IFEZ will provide funding for a biotechnology laboratory for University faculty and students to work in.

“We’ve just created a dual doctoral degree with Seoul National University in biotechnology,” he said. “What we’re talking about with the IFEZ is they have provided some funds for a laboratory there that could be a place for our faculty members and faculty members from Seoul National work together on research in the biotechnology field in association with this doctoral degree.”

From there, Nielsen said the next stage would be to think about teaching part of the University’s degree programs in the Seoul-Incheon area, and the ultimate goal would be to establish a physical presence in IFEZ, where the University could offer a larger range of courses and degree programs.

“That’s a long way down the road though, in terms of us talking and thinking about,” Nielsen said.

While the decision to construct the laboratory or a future campus in Korea has not yet been settled, Nielsen said they will be offering study abroad opportunities to Seoul National University.

“I don’t think we’ve got anything coming up this summer, but I believe we’d be looking at study abroad for summer of 2009,” Nielsen said.

As for the possibility of a future NCSU campus in the Incheon area, Nielsen said the planning phase would go up to 2010.

“Our target to actually have something operating there other than a study abroad program, something year round — it would be 2020-2011 at the earliest,” Nielsen said.

Nielsen said he is thrilled about this opportunity because he feels it will fit in with the goals of the University to provide more international experiences for students.

“We think it’s crucial that our students, our graduates get experience somewhere else other than North Carolina so they understand, appreciate and love the broader world,” Nielsen said. “We’re engaged at the University in expanding our international programs in lots of ways and lots of places.”

And some of these places include partnerships with St. John’s University in China, the University of Concepción in Chile and the Prague Institute, an NCSU campus in the Czech Republic.

According to Nielsen, the success of the Prague Institute and relationships with other universities abroad has influenced the University’s decision to go through with the opportunity.

“We’ve been very pleased with the Prague Institute and our work in China and other places, and we’ve got a strong commitment to make this happen because of our students,” Nielsen said. “We’re going after this in as many locations as we can continue to operate in with the resources we have.”

Despite the success of the Prague Institute, Dana Bartelt, director of the Prague Institute, said she feels more effort should be put into the still evolving programming of the Prague Institute before any plans to develop another international site are started.

“It has been difficult for us to inform the N.C. State student body and faculty of all the programming at the Prague Institute,” Bartelt said. “If there are more off-campus programs it dilutes our efforts.”

Nielsen, on the other hand, said it is the University’s goal is to expand the opportunities so students can find locations all over the world that have strong programs that match up with their interests.

“Right now, about 13 percent of our students get a formal study abroad program that we can measure as it operates through our study abroad program,” Nielsen said. “Our goal over the next 4 to 5 years is to go to 25 percent, so to double that number.”

Jessica Morgan, a senior in biological sciences and former attendee of the Prague Institute, agreed that the current programs need to expand or more study abroad programs should be added.

“I would really like to see more science-related study abroad [programs], because a lot of them are only geared towards foreign languages and design,” Morgan said.

If the University approves the possibility of study abroad experience or degree programs for the IFEZ area, Nielsen said it would probably start with biotechnology, but hopefully expand as the Prague Institute has over the past couple years.

“You’ve got to always start from something, so they would start from a core of biotechnology for example in this doctoral degree program,” he said. “But the goal is to have it expansive across University programming.

Although the University has not approved most of these ideas, Nielsen said the already-approved study abroad experiences and the joint degree program in South Korea will still help to achieve the University’s goals.

“Producing leaders for the state, nation and the world is one of our principle focus areas at the University,” Nielsen said. “We’re here to produce the leaders that the state, nation and world needs, and those are people who are going to understand the world and understand our place in it.”