Ajou University President Choi Kee-choo visited Uzbekistan where he met with government officials to discuss educational cooperation plans. In 2021, Ajou University opened Ajou University in Tashkent (AUT), to which it exports its education system and expertise.

President Choi, accompanied by Executive Director Kim Sun-yong [KH1]of Daewoo Educational Foundation and other Korean officials, visited Tashkent and Samarkand, Uzbekistan, from June 8th to 12th. The Ajou University delegation included Director Kim Sangin (Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation), Director Son Jeong-houn (AUT Foundation), Director Chang Byeongyun (Graduate School of International Studies), Professor Na Sangsin (Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering), and Professor Han Man Yop (Department of Civil Systems Engineering).

On the visit, President Choi signed subcontracts related to AUT. The delegation toured AUT facilities and met with students and the dispatched Ajou University teaching and administrative staff working on location. 

The delegation also visited the Uzbek Ministry of Economic Development and Ministry of Higher Education, where key topics concerning AUT and other educational cooperation opportunities were discussed. 

A major outcome of the visit was an agreement between Ajou University and the Graduate School of Business and Entrepreneurship (GSBE), an educational institution under the Uzbek Ministry of Economic Development, that will see students completing the Master of Business Administration in IT (MBA in IT) program—to be made available as a result of the agreement—acquire a double degree. The MBA in IT will commence this coming October.

The MBA in IT is for employees of Uzbek government offices and the related agencies. It requires them to complete two semesters at AUT and another two semesters at Ajou University to receive a degree from both institutions. Ajou University will provide the curriculum consulting necessary and dispatch teaching staff, and Uzbek students will earn their credits at the Graduate School of International Studies at Ajou University in Korea. 

Ajou University and the GSBE have been planning the double degree system at the request of the Uzbek Ministry of Economic Development.

The Ajou University delegation also visited Samarkand State University where it met with that institution’s President Khalmuradov Rustam Ibragimovich to discuss ideas for cooperation in the disciplines of architecture and engineering. Samarkand is Uzbekistan's second-largest city after the capital, Tashkent.

The delegation's itinerary in Tashkent included visits to such establishments of Korean origin as POSCO International, King Sejong Institute, and the Embassy of Korea in Uzbekistan, and attended an informal gathering of Ajou University Graduate School of International Studies graduates and AUT students.

Located in the Uzbek capital, AUT began operating in February 2021 in Uzbek government-provided sites and buildings on Ajou University's educational curricula and philosophy. Three departments—Civil Systems Engineering, Architecture, and Electrical and Computer Engineering—are running at present, with 839 first- and second-year students enrolled.

Seven Ajou University faculty members, including the first vice-president, have assumed posts on location at AUT, and work together with local faculty to deliver teaching and administrative services. All learning is provided in English, with the curricula of the corresponding departments at Ajou University forming the basis of the learning. Ajou University diplomas are conferred on AUT graduates.

AUT is the product of an exchange much broader than a mere transfer of teaching staff or departments. Ajou University has wholly exported the educational system that makes up its core to Uzbekistan in what is considered to be a milestone achievement in education export. Uzbek students have a strong desire to study at AUT, with the second round of registrations for 2021-2022 recording an enrollment competition rate of 7.5:1, far eclipsing the 2.7:1 seen for 2020-2021.

<Meetings with AUT students and teaching staff>

<A meeting with Uzbek Ministry of Economic Development officials. Ajou University and the Graduate School of Business and Entrepreneurship (GSBE), under the Uzbek Ministry of Economic Development, will jointly operate the MBA in IT program.>

<A meeting with Uzbek Ministry of Education officials. Ajou University has the Uzbek government's full support in an envisioned departmental expansion of AUT.>

# Top image: President Choi (right) with Vice-Minister of Economic Development and GSBE President Abdinazarov Bobur (left) at the Ajou University-GSBE MOU signing ceremony held at the Uzbek Ministry of Economic Development building on June 9.