In April 2018, Hanyang University was selected as a Changemaker Campus of Ashoka U, the first global network of social innovation universities in East Asia.
In the 10 years since the Ashoka U initiative was launched in 2008, only 45 world-renowned universities, including Cornell University, Brown University, and Johns Hopkins University in the United States, have been able to join the network, and it is a “milestone” that demonstrates Hanyang University's global status as a leader in social innovation. The Ashoka U review process is very rigorous. It consists of a 360-degree campus scan that examines curriculum, student activities, and investment in social innovation, a site visit, and an interview with the Ashoka Global Panel. It took about two years of preparation, starting in October 2016, to successfully complete the process. Behind this achievement was Hanyang University's vision and strategy for social innovation.
Under the founding spirit of 'Practicing Love', Hanyang University was the first in Korea to establish the Social Service Corps to foster human resources who contribute to social development. In 2017, the Social Innovation Center was established under the Social Service Corps to provide support for social venture startups and internships in the social sector for sustainable and systematic social innovation, moving away from the simple service paradigm.
Drive in social innovation is incomplete without senior leadership involvement. In the same year, Hanyang University announced its 3S strategy (Smart-Startup-SocialInnovation) as a mid- to long-term goal, sharing its vision to once again establish itself as a leading global social innovation university.
The HUGE initiative (Hanyang University for Global Engagement) was announced to support social innovation activities, consisting of networking, training, and funding. With the completion of the concrete action plan, a robust system has been created to actively promote social innovation activities by members on and off campus.
The program supports not only Hanyang University students but also young people in the Asia-Pacific region to foster global leadership and support social innovation projects. Hanyang University's systematic human resource development curriculum was also selected as a strength of Hanyang University during the Ashoka U application process.
Hanyang University became the first university in Korea to establish a social innovation convergence major in the first semester of 2018, by collecting existing social innovation courses sporadically and selecting only the most core courses.
In conjunction with the master's and doctoral programs in the Department of Global Social and Economic Affairs, the educational system for students to grow as social innovation experts was completed.
At the Ashoka U Changemaker Campus appointment ceremony held in San Diego, USA, in February 2019, Professor Kim Jong-gul (Dean of the Graduate School of International Studies), a Change Leader at Hanyang University, said, “Although Hanyang University was selected as a member of Ashoka U only a year ago (2018), we have always pursued the essence of a changemaker campus since our opening in 1939.”
“As a higher education institution, we have not yet found the answers to how to cultivate people who practice learning and how to fulfill the social responsibilities of the university, but we will continue to make a meaningful journey,” concluded Professor Kim Jong-gul.