KB News Desk
Education Minister Choi Kyo-jin visited the Mongolian University of Science and Technology on July 10 to review the progress of a higher education cooperation project aimed at training specialists in cultural heritage conservation.
According to the Education Ministry on Thursday, Choi inspected the facilities, established under Korea’s Leading University Project for International Cooperation, together with his Mongolian counterpart.
The two ministers toured conservation treatment and analysis facilities, digital documentation laboratories and a cultural heritage conservation education center. They also discussed how the program could become self-sustaining after the Korean-backed project ends and ways to expand higher education cooperation between the two countries.
The initiative is part of South Korea’s official development assistance program for higher education, under which Korean universities support universities in developing countries with the creation or restructuring of academic departments, curriculum development and faculty training.
Kongju National University has worked with the Mongolian University of Science and Technology since 2020 to train professionals in cultural heritage conservation.
Under the project, Mongolia’s first Department of Tangible Cultural Heritage Conservation Technology was established at the university in December 2022.
Kongju National University helped develop the department’s curriculum based on its experience in Korea, produce Mongolian-language textbooks, improve laboratory facilities and administer field training programs.
A total of 51 undergraduate students have enrolled in the department so far, with the first class expected to graduate in May 2027. Graduates are expected to pursue careers at museums, cultural heritage centers and archaeological research institutions.
In 2023, the department was included among professional fields identified by Mongolia’s Education and Science Ministry as necessary for future education, according to the Korean ministry.
The project has also established a Cultural Heritage Conservation Education Center linking undergraduate education with professional training in the field.
The Korean government has also supported faculty development through the Global Korea Scholarship program.
A Mongolian faculty member earned a doctorate in digital cultural heritage at Kongju National University through the scholarship program and is expected to help lead the department and the conservation education center.
The ministry said the program is gradually shifting from a system led by Korean experts dispatched to Mongolia to one operated by locally trained faculty.
“The significance of the project lies in helping partner universities develop the capacity to conduct education and research independently,” Choi said.
