History
Soongsil University was founded on October 10, 1897 in Pyongyang as a private and first school in Korea by Dr. William M. Baird, a missionary of the Northern Presbyterian Church of America. In 1900 the school was developed into an official 4-year junior high school. In October 1901 the school was named Soongsil Hakdang (숭실학당, "Soongsil Academy"). The name, Soongsil (숭실), roughly means "Revering (숭 soong) with Truth and Integrity (실 sil)".
In 1905 the Hakdang was permitted by the missionary body to establish a university (called Union Christian College), which was later authorized as a university by Korean government in 1907. But in 1925 the school was forcibly reduced to a 4-year technical school of humanities (named 숭실전문학교 (崇實專門學校), pronounced Sūjitsu Senmon Gakkō in Japanese). On March 4, 1938 the school closed itself in order to protest against the enforcement of Shinto shrine worship.
In August 1945 Korea was liberated from Japanese colonialism, but the effort to restore the Soongsil College did not succeed until after the end of the Korean War. In April 1954 Soongsil College was reestablished in South Korea and in June 1957 it moved to the present-day Sangdo-dong Campus. In 1971 the College was merged with Daejun College (대전대학 (大田大學) (not to be confused with present-day Daejeon University) into Soongjun College (숭전대학 (崇田大學)). In December 1971 the College acquired a university status. In December 1982, Daejeon Campus of Soongjun University was separated and renamed Hannam University. In November 1986, Soongjun University was renamed Soongsil University.
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