SNU sees 30% of PhD theses in English

Only 30 percent of the doctoral theses at Seoul National University (SNU), which officials say is seeking to become a ``world class comprehensive research university,`` are written in English.

Of the 853 doctoral theses submitted in the 2000 academic year, 32.7 percent were written in English, university authorities said Tuesday.

The rate is a little higher than 28.1 percent for the 1999 academic year (232 of the total 826). School officials said the total is still too low to make the world aware of the academic achievements of SNU and promote academic exchanges with leading world universities.

By college, the College of Natural Sciences had the largest rate of 82.8 percent, with 101 of 122 doctoral papers written in English, followed by 57.1 percent (eight of 14) in the College of Veterinary Medicine, 41.4 percent (101 of 244) in the College of Engineering, 33.3 percent (14 of 42) in the College of Dentistry, and 30.8 percent (20 of 65) in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

In comparison, the College of Medicine posted 18.2 percent (22 of 121), College of Business Administration 9.1 percent (one of 11), College of Social Sciences 5.6 percent (two of 36), College of Human Ecology 5 percent (one of 20) and College of Humanities 4.9 percent (three of 61).

Not a single English doctoral thesis was submitted to the colleges of Education, Law, Nursing and Music or the graduate schools of Environmental Studies and Public Health.