Incheon Global Campus to expand next year with five new universities

The Incheon Free Economic Zone Authority (IFEZA) and the Incheon Institute announced they are in discussions to start the second phase of the Incheon Global Campus (IGC) project, which aims to invite five more overseas universities to the area.

Students pose for a photo in front of SUNY Korea's campus in the Incheon Global Campus area [INCHEON GLOBAL CAMPUS]

The Incheon Free Economic Zone Authority (IFEZA) and the Incheon Institute announced they are in discussions to start the second phase of the Incheon Global Campus (IGC) project, which aims to invite five more overseas universities to the area.

The two organizations announced Tuesday that the time is right to move on to the second phase of the project, as existing IGC universities now have a total of 4,255 students, which is 94.1 percent of their admission quotas.

They plan to initiate the project sometime next year.

In this second phase, IFEZA plans to add another five universities to IGC, aiming for a total of 10,000 students.

SUNY Korea was the first university to open at IGC in 2012, followed by George Mason Korea, Utah Asia Campus and Ghent University Global Campus. All universities offer classes in English.

One university that may open a branch campus in Songdo is the University of Southampton, which submitted a letter of intent to IFEZA in May.

The Mannes School of Music also signed a memorandum of understanding with IFEZA to open a branch campus, also in May.

To create campus space for the new universities, IFEZA will invest 342.5 billion won ($250 million) to build facilities. These will be constructed on a 115,000 square meter (1.24 million square foot) plot of land near the existing global campus complex in Songdo, Incheon.

BY LEE TAE-HEE [lee.taehee2@joongang.co.kr]