Kookmin University’s Department of New Materials Engineering and Tohoku University’s Faculty of Engineering in Japan have signed an agreement for a Jointly-Supervised Ph.D. Degree (JSD) program for doctoral students and have begun full-scale operations.
 
Doctoral students participating in the JSD program will receive joint supervision from faculty members at Kookmin University and Tohoku University and will conduct research at the partner university for at least six months. Subsequently, they will submit their doctoral dissertation, written in English, to their home university, and the dissertation defense will be conducted in English. 
Students who successfully complete the program will receive a Ph.D. degree from their home university, along with a certificate officially attesting that Kookmin University and Tohoku University jointly supervised the student’s doctoral studies.
 
Currently, Lee Hyo-jeong (third semester of the master’s program) and Lee Woo-young (third semester of the integrated master’s-Ph.D. program), both students in the Department of Advanced Materials Engineering at Kookmin University, are conducting joint research at Tohoku University for six months. Lee Woo-young was the first student to officially enroll in the JSD program and begin the program under the joint supervision of faculty from both universities.
 
The Department of Materials Science and Engineering plans to continue expanding the participation of outstanding Ph.D. students to strengthen international collaborative research with Tohoku University and foster global talent.