Synn Il-hi, president of Keimyung University, became the first Korean member of the board of directors of the Confucius Institute in China at a meeting of world Confucius institutes on January 11 in Beijing.

The Confucius Institute is non-profit organization founded by the Ministry of Chinese Education, Hanban, to introduce Chinese language and culture to the world. There are three hundred and fifty eight Confucius institutes and five hundred schools in one hundred and five countries.

The members of the board of directors comprise college presidents and celebrities from around the world. However, in Asia, only the presidents of Waseda University in Japan and Chulalongkorn University in Thailand have been elected.