About Us

Dongguk University (Korean: 동국대학교) is a private university in Jung District, Seoul, South Korea. It is one of the few Buddhist-affiliated universities in the world, and is a member of the International Association of Buddhist Universities.

Established in 1906 as Myeongjin School (명진학교; 明進學校) by Buddhist pioneers of the Association of Buddhism Research (불교연구회; 佛敎硏究會), the university gained full university status with its current name in 1953. The university's symbol animal is an elephant, which stemmed from Queen Māyā of Sakya's precognitive dream of a white elephant about the birth of The Buddha, and the symbol flower is a lotus blossom which reflects the Buddhist truth.

Dongguk University Seoul campus is organised into 127 undergraduate and graduate schools, which enrolled 13,701 undergraduate students and 1,801 graduate students and granted 3,140 bachelor's, 470 master's and 172 doctorate degrees in 2017. Its comprehensive academic programme offers 53 undergraduate majors, together with 59 graduate programmes.

The university also operates campuses in Peckham, Gyeongju, and Los Angeles, United States. The university operates two affiliated hospitals of Western medicine, and four of Oriental medicine, a generic term which includes traditional Korean medicine studies.

The university began as Myeongjin School on May 8, 1906. It was established by the Association of Buddhism Research to provide Buddhist education.