Why Not Change the World? – IHL Professor Visits Partner University in South Korea

Why Not Change The World?

Visitors to Handong Global University can hardly escape this question. It is omnipresent, written in large letters on buildings and brochures, and encountered in conversations: “What concerns us at Handong this fall is the question of how we can provide an innovative, Christian response to AI and digitalization with a holistic approach,” says the director of the International Office. “Our concern as a university is to change the world with love and wisdom. We want to be a genuinely Christian university that promotes the global Christian mission and a life of discipleship in everything it does.” My two conversation partners get very enthusiastic as they explain their vision to me and the strategies they are pursuing to realize it.

Handong Global University is one of 13 partner universities of Internationale Hochschule Liebenzell and is located in Pohang, in the far northeast of South Korea. The university is just 30 years old and lives up to its name “Global” with more than 5,000 students from over 50 countries and 40% of its courses taught in English. There is far too little time to take in everything that I encounter there, and I am glad that I took half a day off for this visit. Before we leave, we actually meet one of two IHL students studying theology/development studies who have just arrived there for their semester abroad. A good decision, I think. If I were a student at IHL, I would definitely take advantage of this opportunity.

Since the start of the partnership between Handong and IHL in 2019, 25 IHL students have spent one semester at Handong and 3 Handong students have spent at least one semester at IHL. Also, there have been various faculty and staff visits to each other.

Dr. Friedemann Burkhardt.