By Al Hackle, Statesboro Herald.

The presidents of Georgia Southern University and Kyungil University, which is in Gyeongsan, South Korea, signed a memorandum of understanding Monday promising to work toward specific cooperation. Kyungil University is closely associated with Ajin Industrial Co., whose Ajin Georgia automotive parts factory is located south of Statesboro.

Specifically, the Ajin Georgia plant makes metal structural parts, such as floorboards and doors, that frame the electric vehicles assembled at Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America in northern Bryan County. Although the Metaplant only recently rolled out its first market-ready vehicle, a 2025 Ioniq 5 all-electric SUV, the Ajin plant had begun trial production of parts last spring. When Ajin Georgia hosted a grand opening luncheon in July, the plant already had about 200 employees and plans to have about 350 on the job by year end. After ramping up production, the factory is projected to employ about 630 people in a few years.

It also operates hundreds of robots for tasks such as welding.

Georgia Southern University President Dr. Kyle Marrero and Kyungil University President Dr. Hyun-Tae Chung signed the brief MOU – a preliminary agreement expected to lead to more specific agreements – Monday afternoon, Oct. 14, upstairs in the Engineering & Research Building on Georgia Southern’s Statesboro campus. “Through global collaboration, we can offer our students and faculty opportunities that extend far beyond the walls of our classrooms,” Marrero said in prepared remarks. “This partnership with Kyungil University opens new doors for research, for the exchange of knowledge and culture, and for the growth of our academic communities.” Exchange experiences in which Georgia Southern students or professors would spend time in Korea, or some from Kyungil University study the United States, are one possibility, as are shared research projects, officials said. The possible establishment of a “Korean Center” at Georgia Southern was also mentioned.

“This could lead to very meaningful things,” said Jaeyeon Hwang, Ph.D., a professor in the School of Global Business at Kyungil University. “This is the MOU, but based on this conversation we look forward to develop the further relationship and establish more programs, like a Korean Center or the exchange programs in the future.”

A Korean Center?

But whether something like a Center for Korean Studies will be established at Georgia Southern remains to be seen.

“That can be,” she said. “It’s not guaranteed. ... This (the MOU) is just the first stepping stone.”

Hwang also served as interpreter for President Chung in his brief remarks prior to the signing. Ajin Group Chairman/ Ajin Industrial CEO Joong-Ho Seo, who attended the signing event, is in fact chairman of Kyungil University’s board of regents.

In addition to Marrero, Georgia Southern Vice President for Research and Economic Development David Weindorf, Ph.D., represented the university that has campuses in Statesboro, Savannah and Hinesville.

The MOU “is sort of a framework agreement” that “speaks in generalities that we agree to sort of play together, collaborate together, build out infrastructure together, and really look for opportunities for a more detailed partnership in the future,” Weindorf said.

When Marrero asked Seo to appear in photos after the signing, he said he would only if Georgia Southern officials would commit to visit the university in Korea soon. They said they would.

“Our group from Georgia Southern University is planning a trip to Korea in early 2025 where we’ll work out some of those formalities of detailed partnerships, whether that’s related to research, education, engagement with the Korean community, especially as it involves their presence here with the Hyundai plant, with Ajin and others,” Weindorf said afterward.

Auburn University reported in August that Ajin Industrial, which has operated a parts plant in Cusseta, Alabama, since 2009, donated $100,000 to Auburn University’s Korea Corner, a program that sends educators from the area to Korea to learn about its culture and schools and promotes other exchanges.

Fifteen educators from Bulloch, Candler and Evans counties, Georgia, were included in a Korea Corner trip to South Korea, where they visited several schools and historic sites, in June.

“We’ve seen the model that Auburn University has used over in Alabama, and that gives us a framework of something we can look at and see if it makes sense for us in Georgia, but it’s been very successful over there,” Weindorf said.