The real estate department at Konkuk University in Seoul approached its counterpart at the J. Mack Robinson College of Business about the partnership last year, said Julian Diaz, a Robinson real estate professor and the program's director.

“They were looking for a partner for the real estate program and they identified us as being one of the premier real estate programs in the country,” Dr. Diaz told GlobalAtlanta.

Officials ironed out the details of the partnership last June, determining that students would tack on about a year's worth of coursework at the partner university to earn master's degrees from both.

In all programs, Konkuk has more than 26,000 students at two campuses in Korea. At least three real estate students have submitted applications to enroll at Georgia State in the fall. The Robinson College will accept as many students as meet its admissions criteria, Dr. Diaz said.

At the outset, most of the students in the exchange program will be from Konkuk, he said. Robinson plans to market the program to its student body as well as the growing Korean community in Georgia.

The real estate department is “making a big bet in Asia,” where emerging markets like China, India, Japan and Korea are showing a lot of promise for up-and-coming professionals, Dr. Diaz said.

Robinson hopes the alliance with Konkuk will boost the school's profile and build personal connections that lead to momentum for its doctoral programs.

“When these students come over here, it gives us a chance to sell them on what we're doing,” Dr. Diaz said.

Korea was a good place to set up this base, as it's a dynamic and sizable market but not a “monster” like China, where people can get “completely lost,” he said.

The partnership will give students a chance to add an international component to their real estate degrees, which is currently overwhelmingly focused on the U.S. market.

“What this offers the American students is that it gives them experience in international development, and more and more people are going to be interested in that,” Dr. Diaz said. “It gives them a little bit of a competitive advantage.”

Visit www.robinson.gsu.edu for more information.

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