Sungshin Women's University (Korean: 성신여자대학교) is a private women's university located in Seongbuk-gu, Seoul, South Korea. It was founded by Dr. Sook-Chong Lee in 1936. The university comprises ten colleges and five graduate schools, with total enrollment of about 12,000 students.
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History
Sungshin Girls' School is established by Dr. Lee Sook Chong on April 28, 1936. From 1965 to 1979, this school expanded fast with the establishment of Sungshin Women's Teachers College in January 1965, Sungshin Graduate School in January 1972 and Sungshin Graduate School of Information and Industries in December 1979.
On 18 October 1979, Sungshin Girls' School changed the name to Sungshin Women's College. On 31 July 1981, the college is promoted to the status of university. After received university status, Sungshin Women's University reorganized the courses and experienced new establishment of the Colleges of Humanities, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, Education, and Arts.
In October 1982, the College of Natural Sciences is divided and reorganized into the College of Family Sciences (now College of Human Ecology)
1983.10.29 The Graduate School of Education is established
1988.08.30 Dedication of the Woonjung Building.
1988.10.29 The College of Arts was divided into the College of Music and College of Fine Arts
1994.10.21 The Graduate School of Industry was divided into the Graduate School of Plastic Industry (Graduate School of Arts and Design) and the Graduate School of Information Industry (Graduate School of Cultural Industry)
1995.01.10 Dedication of the Soo-Jung Building
1995.03.01 The Continuing Education Center is established.
1997.10.25 The Graduate School of Human Resource Management is established.
1999.02.12 The Ministry of Education's Overall University Evaluation ranked Sungshin's undergraduate program as "excellent" and its graduate program as "most excellent"
Academics
Sungshin Women's University comprises 45 departments in ten colleges, and five graduate schools. The university also offers 5-year combined Bachelors-Masters program.
Undergraduate colleges
College of Humanities
College of Social Sciences
College of Law
College of Natural Sciences
College of Human Ecology
College of Nursing
College of Education
College of Arts
College of Music
College of Convergence Culture and Arts
Second campus (Woonjung Green Campus)
Sungshin has established a second campus in Seoul. The 54,200 m2 Woonjung Green Campus is within 5 kilometers of the Soojung Campus and makes Sungshin the only university with two campuses in Seoul.
The Woonjung Green Campus, with three college buildings and one shared facilities building opened in March 2010 and houses four colleges: College of Natural Sciences, College of Human Ecology, College of Nursing, and College of Convergence Culture and Arts. Woonjung Green Campus.
Public transit access
Sungshin Women's University is located at a transportation hub, with both campuses near major subway stations. The north-running Ui-Sinseol Rapid Transit Light metro line opened in 2017 and connected to Sungshin Women's University Station.
Sungshin Women's University Station (Soojung Campus); Mia Station (Woonjung Green Campus)
Special Programs
ROTC
Sungshin Women's University has run a Reserve Officers' Training Corps programme for women who want to be recruited as service members by the Ministry of National Defense since 2011. Similar programmes are run by Sookmyung Women's University and Ewha Womans University; these three women's universities saw a total of 90 students join the programme in 2016.
Controversy
Shim Hwa-jin, the granddaughter of founder Li Suk-jong, served as the university's president from 2007 for two terms. When she was once more elected as president for a third term, which would extend her incumbency to 2019, four members of the university's student association raised concerns that Shim had embezzled funds from the school, which led to their suspension in January 2016. The students successfully pursued a court case to have the suspension overturned, and it was struck down in October. Meanwhile, investigative journalists found that a prominent individual's daughter had been admitted to Sungshin after cheating in the assessment, while one of Shim's relatives had also been appointed as a tenure-track lecturer using a plagiarised dissertation.
Charges of embezzlement were brought against Shim and, on 7 February 2017, the Seoul Northern District Court returned a guilty verdict, concluding that Shim had embezzled 378 million won from school funds. She was demoted from her position as president and served nine days in prison before posting bail of 50 million won on 20 February. She was succeeded as president of Sungshin Women's University by Kim Ho-sung.
Notable alumni
Shim Hwa-jin, president of the university 2007–2017
Entertainers
Gong Seung-yeon, actress
Goo Hara, actress and singer (KARA)
Kimera, singer
Lee Se-young, actress
Yoon Chae-kyung, singer (Puretty, April, I.B.I and C.I.V.A)
Kim Chaewon, singer (April)
Kim So-won, actress and singer (GFriend)
Yuju, singer (GFriend)
Kim Yoon-ah, singer (Jaurim)
Hyolyn, singer (Sistar)
Soyou, singer (Sistar)
Shin Do-hyun, actress
Park Se-hyun, actress
Athletes
Jang Mi-ran, 2008 Summer Olympics gold medalist (weightlifting women's category (75 kg. and up))
Nam Hyun-hee, 2008 Summer Olympics silver medalist (fencing women's foil)
Ranking
QS World University Rankings 2023: 591–600
QS Asia University Rankings 2025: 294