The HUSS Global Coexistence Project Team at Kookmin University (President Jeong Seung-ryul) successfully carried out the 2025 Global Resource Coordinator Program in Australia in Sydney from June 30 to July 8.

[Korean Day Event, Jasper Road Public School]

This program, which was held for the first time in Oceania, consisted of an “international joint project-based learning (iPBL)” program with the University of New South Wales and a “Korean Day” event at Australian public schools.

Participating students worked in teams with UNSW students in Australia under the main theme of “Building a Peaceful Global Community” to carry out research collaboration projects. With the active support of the Sydney Korean Education Center (Director Kwon Ji-young), they directly conducted Korean language and culture education activities at three local public schools. Various meaningful events were also held, including a special lecture on K-MOVE employment projects by Sydney KOTRA, a visit to the Korean War Memorial, and a visit to the Korean Education Center.

HUSS's Global Coexistence Consortium has established a joint course, “Global Korean Studies and Korean Language Education,” starting in the first semester of 2025, and designed an international joint PBL with UNSW. Students from the Global Symbiosis Consortium universities—Kwangwoon University, Kookmin University, Yeungnam University, and Honam University—participated in the program to gain an understanding of the current state of Korean studies in Australia and explore opportunities for collaboration and development with local communities. Through a selection process, a total of 40 students—34 Korean students and 6 UNSW students—formed six teams to participate in the program. UNSW is a research-intensive public university located in Sydney, ranked 20th in the QS World University Rankings, and is a prestigious institution. The students prepared for this project since May, defining and exploring various topics such as examples of cooperation between the two countries in modern history, cultural fusion models, Australia's multicultural policies, and cooperation to solve environmental issues. On July 7, at the UNSW campus, they presented their achievements in a ceremony attended by professors from universities affiliated with the HUSS Global Symbiosis Consortium and Professor Shin Sung-cheol from the UNSW School of Humanities and Languages. “Building a Peaceful Global Community through International Joint PBL.” After fierce competition, the first prize was awarded to Group 4 (Choi Jeong-eun, Aisya Saupi, and four others) for their proposal “Animal Protection Solution,” and the second prize was awarded to Group 1 (Kwon Soo-jin, Tamsin Airey, and four others) for their proposal “Minimizing flood damage through ‘safetigram.’”(Kwon Soo-jin, Tamsin Airey, and four others) received the Merit Award, and Team 6 (Park So-jung, Nor Yusrina Yahya, and four others) was selected for the Encouragement Award for their proposal titled “On the Cloud: Public Health Risks of Climate Change.”

[Visit to the Korean Education Center in Sydney]

In addition, the “Korea Day” event was a new and meaningful achievement in that it allowed Korean university students and Australian elementary school students to communicate and share cultural values through the Korean language and culture.The participating students met with over 250 students from Jasper Road Public School, Lidcombe Public School, and Marsden Public School, engaging in diverse and enriching Korean language and cultural activities. The event concluded successfully amid enthusiastic responses and cheers from both students and teachers. In particular, Principal Craig Warner and teacher Hyejin Choi of Jasper Road Public School said that such Korean language and culture events are very meaningful in that they allow future generations to learn about the cooperative relationship between Korea and Australia, and they proposed more active exchanges and regular events.

Professor Lee Dong-eun of the Department of Korean Language and Literature at Kookmin University, who oversaw the program, stated, “This program was a special opportunity for students to directly experience the process of analyzing and creatively solving real social issues in Korea and Australia from a global perspective, based on the knowledge they acquired over the course of a semester, as it was an extracurricular program linked to the HUSS joint curriculum.” He added, “We will continue to strengthen educational and cultural program collaborations through creative cooperation to realize our goal of cultivating core fusion talents with sustainable international inclusiveness.” Professor Shin Sung-cheol from the School of Humanities and Languages at UNSW also commented, “The level of the students’ research presentations was very high, and this project served as a significant growth opportunity for students from both countries.” He noted that the international joint research project was carried out exceptionally well.

The participating students also agreed that the program allowed them to learn diverse and warm ways of communicating with people from outside their own countries and to experience the power of collaboration. One student said, “The process of focusing on real-world problems together, exploring them, and considering solutions naturally led to integration with the local people. Especially, interviewing local citizens directly made me realize the importance of empathy, and the thought that the ideas we created might actually be used in the local community gave me a great sense of fulfillment.” Another student said, “Communicating in English and collaborating with students from various majors allowed me to experience something beyond my limits. No matter what I do in the future, this experience will be a great asset to me.”

[Sydney UNSW Joint iPBL Project Presentation]

In particular, the “Korea Day” activities held at local public schools left a lasting impression on many students. One student said, “I felt warm inside when I greeted the children in Korean and saw them smiling as we shared traditional culture together. I think it was a real exchange of culture and hearts, beyond a simple educational activity.” The participating students shared their reflections upon completing the program, saying, “Although there were many challenging moments balancing the ‘Korea Day’ event and the iPBL project, we return with a sense of great accomplishment and the joy of growth.”

Meanwhile, the HUSS Global Symbiosis Consortium is being operated through the collaboration of Kwangwoon University, Kookmin University, Sunmoon University, Yeungnam University, Honam University, and other universities, with a total of 9 billion won in support from the Ministry of Education and the National Research Foundation of Korea for three years starting in 2024. The consortium aims to cultivate 2,500 core fusion talents equipped with sustainable resource response capabilities, sustainable industry understanding, and sustainable international society inclusiveness, and has been consistently striving to contribute to global symbiosis.

● News related to the Sydney Korean Education Center

1. “Participants from the 2025 Global Resource Coordinator Program, a joint initiative of four universities including Kookmin University, visit Sydney”

http://www.auskec.kr/bbs/board.php?bo_table=sub02_02&wr_id=1285

2. “Participants from the 2025 Global Resource Coordinator Program, a joint initiative of Kookmin University and three other universities, held a traditional Korean culture experience event at Jasper Road Public School”

http://www.auskec.kr/bbs/board.php?bo_table=sub02_02&wr_id=1286

3. “Marsden Road Public School and four universities, including Kookmin University, hold Korean traditional culture experience event as part of the ‘2025 Global Resource Coordinator Program’”

http://www.auskec.kr/bbs/board.php?bo_table=sub02_02&wr_id=1287