Sungkyunkwan University, founded in 1398, is “the oldest village of learning in the world.” At the School of Medicine, approximately 600 full-time faculty members and nearly 1,000 non-full-time faculty members work together in education and research. We currently educate approximately 370 undergraduate students in the premedical and medical programs, as well as around 300 graduate students in basic medical sciences, clinical medicine, and clinical nursing.

Over the past two years, our School has experienced significant changes in student enrollment amid the medical-government conflict. In response, we have expanded essential educational facilities, educational support facilities, and student welfare facilities, while also making substantial efforts to develop our curriculum. Although many difficult challenges still remain, I believe that we can overcome them if all members of our School work together with one heart.

A university is not simply a place for delivering textbook knowledge. It is a place of challenge where students gain diverse experiences through lectures and discussions, practice and research, and where we nurture healthcare professionals equipped with both competence and wisdom to contribute to human welfare, as well as researchers who connect tradition with cutting-edge science. Fortunately, Sungkyunkwan University is well equipped with both the tradition of In, Ui, Ye, and Ji (仁義禮智)?benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom?and the facilities necessary for advanced scientific research. If we communicate a little more with one another and look at the world with a slightly more open mind, I believe we can achieve even greater results.

In 2026, we will strive to further enhance the substance and quality of our education. High-quality lectures are the starting point of education. Along with this, we will more broadly apply new educational methods such as flipped learning, while continuing our School’s proud tradition of problem-based learning (PBL). We will spare no effort in supporting the creation of an interactive environment in which online and offline learning are appropriately integrated.

Maintaining and further strengthening the global standing of our School through high-quality research performance is also an important task. Encouraging achievements have continued, including a rise in our ranking in the recent Times Higher Education (THE) evaluation, and we will continue to focus our capabilities on producing even greater results. We will not forget the important role of the School of Medicine, which accounts for a substantial portion of Sungkyunkwan University’s overall research performance, and we will continue to make diverse efforts to further strengthen our research capabilities.

I would like to learn from the wisdom of the classical expression Siujihwa (時雨之化), meaning “to nurture and enlighten all things equally, like timely rain.” Keeping this spirit in mind, I will continue to renew and improve myself day by day?Ilshin Uilsin (日新又日新)?in order to provide broad opportunities and an environment in which all members of the Sungkyunkwan community who thirst for learning and seek new things can take on any challenge.

Jun Haeng Lee
Dean, School of Medicine
Sungkyunkwan University
January 1, 2026