• • Department Announcements and Contact Info (Refer periodically to 1)~4) for further info.)
    1. 1) Billboard in front of the department office (building 16, Room 228~229)
    2. 2) Departmental website– Announcements( http://geog.snu.ac.kr/contents/bbs/bbs_list.html?bbs_cls_cd=002002001001 )
    3. 3) Geography department Facebook ( https://www.facebook.com/snugeog )
    4. 4) Announcement related inquiries: Department Assistant Room
       (Department Office: building 16, Room 229, Phone: 02-880-6444, Email: snugeog@snu.ac.kr)

• • Advisor (Geography Graduate School Operational Instructions, Article 7)
    1. 1) Admitted students are to select a research advisor within the first or second semester after consulting the graduate advisor for academic affairs according to the [SNU’s Regulations on Granting Degrees].
    2. 2) Before advisor selections in the first semester, the graduate advisor for academic affairs will act as the interim advisor.
    3. 3) The department chair is to play an active role in the students’ advisor selection process.

• • Thesis Submission Period (Articles 16, 24) After completion of coursework, students are to submit their thesis within 4 years for MA and 6 years for Ph.D. Further extension of up to 2 years may be granted after review by department faculty. Periods of national military service and pregnancy/childbirth leave (2 years per leave) after admission are not included in the period stated above.
  • Minimum Credit Requirements (Article 11) The minimum credit requirement is 24 credits for MA students and 36 credits for Ph.D. students.

    Coursework	General Coursework Special Coursework Requirements
    Thesis Qualification	Thesis Qualifying Exam(1) Major Subject (2) Foreign Language Research Article Publication
    Thesis	Proposal and Thesis Presentations Thesis Defense and Revisions

• • Types of Academic Credit (Article 9, 12)Seminar Credits: Received from completing departmental major subjects
  • Research Credits: Received from taking the MA/Ph.D. “Reading and Research” course. Repeated registration for this course is allowed as long as the total credits do not exceed the limit of 6 credits for MA students and 12 credits for Ph.D. students. Also, students are not allowed to sign up for more than 2 “Reading and Research” courses per semester.
  • Non-departmental Course Substitution (Article 10) Courses outside of the normal departmental offerings can be substituted for major coursework credits. These courses can either be 1) a graduate level course, 2) an undergraduate level course that are recommended by the advisor and approved by the department chair. For students who matriculated after August 2017, there is no limit for departmental credits if courses are recommended and approved.
    Refer to : http://sugang.snu.ac.kr
  • Course Registration (Article 14)Along with the online course registration process, students need to complete an offline confirmation. Students are to seek out their advisors to confirm their courses for the semester and fill out a registration form, which will then be finalized by the department chair.

• • Course Requirement for Non-geography Major Graduates (Article 13)Non-geography major graduates from undergraduate course are students who have graduated from majors other than geography or geography education. If unclear, a student’s status will be decided by the geography department faculty meeting. M.A. students who are non-geography major graduates are required to take an additional 3 credits of undergraduate or graduate course in the geography department, above the minimum required credits (that is, total of 27 credits). For Ph.D. students, it is an additional 6 credits worth of undergraduate or graduate course within the department (that is, total of 42 credits).
  • Course Requirement for Non-geography Major Graduates (Article 13-2)As for credit transfer for M.A. or Ph.D. students from other university credit before admission to SNU, a curriculum acquired in the same or similar course or major in other university can be recognized as completing 6 credits for M.A., 9 credits for Ph.D. and 15 credits for master’s and doctoral integrated courses (only when subjects with grades of B0 or higher completed within 10 years). Up to 6credits may be recognized if credits are obtained in the master’s and doctoral integration courses of other university before admission to the M.A. course of SNU. In order to be recognized as credits regarding the mentioned above, it may be recognized according to the prescribed procedure after receiving a recommendation from an advisor and confirmation from the head of the department on whether the major and subject of the university are the same or similar. Matters not prescribed in this guideline regarding the recognition of other completed credits before admission shall follow the [SNU Curriculum Commentary].
• Coursework offered in English languageAt present three Faculty Members offer courses in English:
  • Jeong Man Lee (cultural geography, media geography, field visits)
  • Hae Ran Shin (political geography, qualitative methodologies)
  • Edo Andriesse (developments studies, geopolitics)
  
  SNU’s Graduate School of International Studies, offers all courses in English language ( https://gsis.snu.ac.kr/ ).
  However, please note that doing courses outside our department might mean more work to prepare for your thesis qualification exam (see point 5 below).

• 
  (1) Major Subject
  • Master’s Thesis Qualifying Exam (Article 15) Students who have registered for 3rd semester and have obtained more than 18 credits can apply for the thesis submission qualifying exam with an approval from their advisors. The M.A. thesis submission qualifying exam is composed of two parts – ‘short answer-type’ and ‘essay-type’. The total score for each section is 100 points, and the examinees have to achieve above 60 points in both sections. Passing both parts of the exam corresponds to a ‘final pass’ while passing only one of the sections is considered a ‘partial pass.’ In the case of a partial pass, examinees do not have to retake the section they have passed already.
    • I. Short Answer Questions
    • The short answer questions test basic geographic knowledge. The two questions are to be asked per each department faculty and the examinee must answer a total of 10 questions. A question bank with a total of 10 short answer type questions per faculty can be distributed to the examinee prior to the administering of the exam.
    • II. Essay Answer Questions
    • The essay answer questions are composed of one question per department faculty member and the examinee must answer a total of 3 questions.
  • Doctoral Thesis Qualifying Exam (Article 23) Students who have registered for 3rd semester and have obtained more than 18 credits can apply for the qualifying exam with an approval from their advisors. The total score of the Ph.D. qualifying exam is 100 points and the passing grade is above 70 points. Students are tested on their understanding of previously enlisted courses from which they would choose their 4 subjects of evaluation. The exam question will be given by the respective faculty member of each course. In the case of retirement of a faculty member, the new faculty member in charge of the selected course at the time of the exam will be in charge of setting the questions. If no such faculty member exists, the faculty with the closest specialization to the corresponding course will take responsibility. Only one course is permitted per faculty member and the lecturer must be a full-time faculty of SNU. No more than two non-departmental courses are allowed among the exam course selections.
    • All students can either take the exam in English or Korean
• 
  (2) Language Requirements
  

  PLEASE make sure you meet these requirements BEFORE the moment of your thesis defense!

  • ※ All students can either take the exam in English (will be substituted with TEPS or TOEFL) or Korean.
  • ※ According to Article 4(Eligibility for Admission), applicants for the Graduate School of Geography (M.A. Program and Ph.D. program) must have the score of 298points in the TEPS test conducted by the TEPS Management Committee of Seoul National University (551 points in the 247th test conducted on April 7th, 2018 before the TEPS revision and the tests before those times) or 79 points or higher in the TOEFL (IBT) test.

  If the language of selection is English, the English test score (either TEPS or TOEFL(IBT)) submitted as an application for admission is automatically reflected to pass only after taking the thesis submission qualifying exam. However, this does not apply to the Korean language test for English-speaking students explained as follows:

If a student’s mother tongue is English, (either as a common official language or an official language), he or she must choose Korean. Students may apply for the Korean Language Examination any time after admissions regardless of the semester enrolled. They may also register for the exam substitution classes (Korean and Korean Culture 1,2) any time after admissions regardless of the semester enrolled.

• Students must pass the exam or receive grades for the substitution classes before the “Application for Appointing Thesis Committee”. In other words, language requirements must be completed before early April or October of the thesis defense semester. Regarding exam substitution classes, students must have completed and received grades for the course before the start of the defense semester (winter/summer courses included), in order to apply for thesis defense.
  • I. Exemption from the Foreign Language Examination
  • Students who received a grade of “C- or higher” or “S” for exam substitution classes (Korean and Korean Culture 1,2) offered in the regular semester or summer/winter sessions are exempt from the language exam. However, this grade is not included as part of the degree completion credits.
  • II. Administering of Korean Language Examination
    The Korean language examination for international students is conducted in March and September and is supervised by the Office of Academic Affairs. The exam duration is 60 minutes and is separated by the type of program (MA/Ph.D.) and by the field of study (Humanities and Social Sciences/Natural Sciences/Arts). While the exam only consists of a written component, if examinees fail to pass the written exam more than once, they are allowed to take a substitute oral exam with recommendation from their advisor.
  • III. Passing or Retaking the Language Exam
    Out of the total of 100 points, the passing grade is more than 60 points for MA students and more than 70 points for Ph.D. students. There is no limit to retaking the language exam, but the department chair may be able to limit the number of retakes or the application period of the exam for students who have failed to pass the major subject qualifying exam.
  
  

  In the case where students have not passed the English or Korean Language Examination by the 1st and 2nd semester, students must apply for both the Korean Language Examination and the exam substitution class in the 3rd semester. Students who have failed to pass the Korean Language Exam more than once are allowed to substitute their language requirement with an oral evaluation, granted that they receive approval from their advisor and the committee for graduate affairs.

• 
  (1) Master’s Program Publication Requirement
  • Research Article Publication (Article 19)Prior to the thesis defense, students are obligated to have published the research article in a specialized academic journal. The judgment at the final time of publication of the thesis is based on the scheduled publication certificate or online publication results with publication issue number and page of publication. Exceptional cases will be determined by the geography department faculty meeting.
• 
  (2) Ph.D. Program Publication Requirement
  • Research Article Publication (Article 29)Prior to the thesis defense, students must have published an article in a professional journal registered (or proposed to be) in the National Research Foundation of Korea (consult the KCI list) or in an international journal. The proof of publication will be determined by actual online publication of the article or a certification indicating the approximate publication issue and page number. In special cases, the geography department faculty meeting will convene to determine exceptions to this publication requirement.

• 
  (1) MA Proposal Presentations (Article 17)
  • Thesis proposals should be presented before applying for thesis review and should be done at least one semester before the final thesis presentations. The presentation should be given at the department colloquium held on the first Tuesday of either May or November. The presentation should include the research topic, objective, methodology, data collection and application plan, expected results, etc. and needs to be prepared with academic guidance from the advisor.
• 
  (2) MA Final Thesis Presentation (Article 18)
  • After applying for dissertation review, students are to present the final results of their research within the same semester. The final presentation will be presented at the department colloquium, which will be held on the fourth Tuesday of April or October.

• 
  (1) MA Thesis Committee (Article 20)
  • The thesis committee needs to have more than three members including the academic advisor and one member will take on the role of committee chair. The advisor, emeritus faculty and professionals from outside the institution may not become the chair of the thesis committee. The thesis committee will be formed by the academic advisor in collaboration with the graduate advisor for academic affairs and can invite professionals of related fields if deemed necessary.
• 
  (2) MA Thesis Defense (Article 21)
  • The oral portion of the defense will be carried out alongside the final evaluation of the written thesis and will be scored out of 100 points. The passing grade is above 60 points. Additionally, in order to pass the thesis defense more than two out of three members of the committee need to give approval.


• (3) Submission of thesis for preservation paper (Article 22)
  • Submit the approved thesis to the Central Library within the prescribed deadline in accordance with “The Binding and Printing Guidelines of SNU” for M.A. and Ph.D. degrees.

• 
  (1) Ph.D. Thesis Advisory Committee (Article 25)
  • Students who have met the minimum credit requirements and have passed the thesis qualifying exam should convene a thesis advisory committee at least once for direction on dissertation writing. The committee should be composed of more than three people including the academic advisor who will be the chair of the committee. No more than one non-Geography faculty is allowed to become a committee member. The external committee member may be appointed after the advisor consults the graduate advisor for academic affairs. The thesis advisory committee will evaluate the dissertation proposal and decide whether the student is ready to present at the department colloquium. The decision for dissertation presentation will be made before the beginning of summer or winter break.
• 
  (2) Doctoral Dissertation Presentation (Article 26)
  • Students who have received the approval of their thesis advisory committee may present their final research results in the department colloquium. The geography department faculty meeting will then evaluate the presentation and decide whether a repeat presentation is necessary. The colloquium for doctoral dissertation presentations will be held on the second Tuesday of April or October. For any students ready to start the dissertation review process, they would need to submit review applications within the same semester of their dissertation presentation.

• 
  (1) Ph.D. Thesis Committee (Article 27)
  • The thesis committee is consisted of more than five members including the academic advisor. The positions of committee chair and vice-chair will be assumed by geography faculty members, excluding the advisor. The advisor, emeritus faculty and professionals from outside the institution may not become the chair of the thesis committee. In principle, at least three members of the thesis committee positions need to be filled by geography faculty. However, for the GIS and physical geography fields, this principle does not apply. The committee will be formed by the academic advisor in collaboration with the graduate advisor for academic affairs and in the case of selecting non-departmental committee members, at least one has to be a professional from outside SNU.
• 
  (2) Ph.D. Thesis Defense (Article 28)
  • Under the responsibility of the committee chair, the preliminary dissertation review must be conducted at least two times or more. In order to pass the thesis defense more than four out of five members of the committee need to give approval. The oral portion of the defense will be carried out alongside the final evaluation of the written dissertation and will be scored out of 100 points. The passing grade is above 70 points and more specifically, the dissertation needs to receive this passing average of 70 points from at least four out of five committee members.
• 
  (3) Publishing of Research Results (Article 29)
  • Prior to the start of the doctoral dissertation review, it is mandatory to publish at least one academic journal (including candidates) registered in the Korea Research Foundation or international academic journal. The judgement at the final time of publication of the thesis is based on the scheduled publication certificate or online publication results with issue number and page. Exceptional cases are judged by the faculty meeting.
• 
  (4) Submission and Publication of thesis for preservation papers (Article 31)
  • Submit the approved thesis to the Central Library within the prescribed deadline in accordance with “The Binding and Printing Guidelines of SNU” for M.A. and Ph.D. degrees. According to the “Enforcement Decree of the Higher Education Act” and “Seoul National University Degree Conferment Regulations”, which stipulate that the dissertation should be published within one year of obtaining a doctoral degree, it may be published as a separate issue of the Geography Journal, and academic journal of the Department of Geography.

The BK21 Four is a research development project funded by the National Research Foundation of Korea, and its major objective is to offer scholarships to graduate students and promote their research activities. The geography graduate school consisting of faculty, graduate students and research personnel form a team within this project, listed as follows:

Every semester, graduate students will be qualified to become part of the BK program and are given monthly scholarships (minimum of 100 thousand won for Ph.D. students and 70 thousand won for MA students) and additional monetary benefits for research. Please refer to the footnote below for details. Occurring expenses for attending overseas academic conference and training, for publishing in academic journals, for attending academic seminars, conducting experiments and purchasing related equipment, etc. can be covered by the BK program scholarship. For more information, contact the administrative office directly.

Student participants are to consistently produce research results and maintain a certain standard of academic performance (publishing in journals, presenting in conferences, etc.). They are also required to attend events organized by the BK program . These two criteria will become the standard for the scholarship selection process conducted at the beginning of every semester.
For further assistant, please contact the administrative staff.

• • Phone : 02-880-6444
  • Email : snugeog@snu.ac.kr
  • Websites :
    http://geog.snu.ac.kr/?lang=03
    http://geog.snu.ac.kr/contents/bbs/bbs_list.html?bbs_cls_cd=002002001001
  • Facebook :
    https://www.facebook.com/snugeog

• • Office : building 16, room 444
  • Phone : 010-9371-2710
  • Email : edoandriesse@snu.ac.kr

• • Phone : 02-880-8636
  • Website: http://oia.snu.ac.kr/main.html
  • Contact for general inquiries of student life at SNU and scholarship opportunities

• • http://www.studyinkorea.go.kr/en/main.do
  
  5) Prospective Students Brochure
  • Download Brochure