At long last, Hanyang University’s (HYU) first graduate school specialized in the field of counseling psychology has finally been established. The first semester of the program will begin on September 1, 2016. This first semester follows HYU’s announcement on April 9 of this year that it was going to launch the Graduate School of Counseling Psychology (GSPC) to foster human resources in the area of counseling psychology.

Another reason the new graduate school was established was to further research that effectively addresses the increasing number of issues and challenges bombarding people in the modern world on a day to day basis. For its mission, GSPC offers two tracks of major: Child Counseling and Adult Counseling. Both Child Counseling and Adult Counseling tracks aim to foster students into scientist-practitioners capable of not only developing their own theories but also practically bringing the theoretical aspect of their research into people’s daily lives.

Based on this scientist-practitioner model of training, Child Counseling track educates child-specific mental diseases, and Adult Counseling on a vice versa. In order for a practical education, a majority of the school’s lectures, according to the Administrative of GSPC, are going to be proceeded through class discussions and various team projects.

Professor Cha Yoon-kyung will be serving as the Dean of the Graduate School of Counseling Psychology. Professor Cha received his Bachelor’s degree in Education from Seoul National University and Ph. D in Educational Sociology from Stanford University. He served as a professor at Hanyang’s College of Education before becoming the dean, prior to his appointment at the new graduate school.