Students from South Korea, China and Indonesia have the opportunity to experience life at Eastern because of dual-degree agreements in place at four universities.

The dual-degree agreements allow international students to receive credit from Eastern after completing two years at their original university, and once they have met Eastern’s graduation requirements, the credit is transferred back to their university.

Eastern has dual-degree agreements with Chungnam National University in Daejeon Province, Seoul, South Korea; Hankou University in Wuhan, China; Sekolah Tinggi Ilmu Ekonomi Yayasan Administrasi Indonesia (Y.A.I.) in Jakarta, Indonesia; and Universitas Persada Indonesia Y.A.I. also in Jakarta.

President Bill Perry said these agreements are very positive programs for Eastern and provide a great educational experience for students and faculty interaction.

“The agreements allow for an exchange of ideas and people, and bring new perspectives and information to the table,” Perry said. “It also has advantages in terms of when students come here from another country, our students get more cultural interaction.”

Kevin Vicker, interim director of the international students and scholars office, said Eastern’s first dual-degree agreement was signed in July 2011 with Chungnam National University.

Vicker traveled to each university in October and said Chungnam National University was similar to Eastern in terms of not being located in a large city.

There are currently two international students taking adavantage of the dual-degree agreement with Chungnam National University and four more students are expected to come to Eastern for the spring semester, Vicker said.

Heewon Shin, a senior communication studies major, and Jungah Lee, a junior business major, are the two students from Chungnam National University.

Shin said she thinks Eastern has a more interactive learning environment.

“The classes are different because here we have smaller classes with maybe 28 people, and at our university we usually have more than 50 people in the class and sometimes classes have more than 200 people in them,” Shin said.

Lee said she thinks the language difference is the most challenging aspect with transferring to Eastern.

“I wanted to increase my English and experience another culture,” Lee said. “EIU doesn’t have very many Korean students so we get to practice English a lot and meet different people.”

Shin said she was initially worried about making friends and didn’t know what to expect from Eastern after seeing many cornfields on the way to Charleston.

“Once I got here I really liked (Eastern) with its beautiful campus, and I was actually really surprised with how kind people are here and how open they are to international students,” Shin said.

The process for implementing dual-degree agreements includes making initial contact with the university, measuring the feasibility and benefit of the agreement, researching the different university students and facilities, and then signing a Memorandum of Understanding.

Vicker said there are several benefits to having dual-degree agreements.

“One is to receive more international students here on campus, and another one is to promote faculty opportunities to teach overseas and really build shared knowledge through educational exchanges,” Vicker said. “I think that Eastern can really grow and become an advanced international initiative and increase our ability to give our students cultural experience.”

Rachel Rodgers can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].