Keijo Imperial University Site

Keijo Imperial University (京城帝国大学, Keijō Teikoku Daigaku) was established in May 1924 as the sixth imperial university in the Japanese Empire and the only one located in colonial Korea. Situated in the Dongsung-dong (東崇町) area of Jongno-gu, Keijo (modern-day Seoul), the university was administered not by Japan's Ministry of Education but directly by the Government-General of Chōsen (朝鮮総督府), reflecting its role as an instrument of colonial governance.

The university opened its preparatory course (予科) in 1924, followed by the Faculty of Law and Literature (法文学部) and Faculty of Medicine (医学部) in 1926. A university hospital was completed in 1928. The Faculty of Engineering and Natural Science (理工学部) was not established until 1941, its preparatory-course students having been admitted from 1938. Critics have read the long delay as a restriction on Korean access to technical and scientific education; the faculty's creation itself reflected the demand for engineers and researchers generated by the industrialisation of Korea and Manchuria and by Japan's escalating wartime needs.

Although officially open to both Japanese and Korean students, the university maintained a stark demographic imbalance. Japanese students consistently comprised the majority of the student body, with Korean enrollment never exceeding half. The faculty was overwhelmingly Japanese, and Korean professors were largely confined to lower-ranking positions. The university conducted research that directly supported colonial administration, including physical anthropology studies and blood-typing surveys across Korea, Manchuria, and China, funded by the Japanese government.

During the final years of World War II, the university shortened academic terms and established wartime research institutes (1942–1945) to mobilize academic resources for the war effort. Research in medicine, engineering, and natural sciences was increasingly oriented toward military applications.

Following Japan's surrender on August 15, 1945, the university was briefly renamed Gyeongseong University (京城大学). On August 22, 1946, under U.S. Military Government Ordinance No. 102, it was merged with nine other educational institutions to form Seoul National University (서울대학교). The original campus in Jongno-gu became part of SNU's Yeongeon Campus, while the main SNU campus later relocated to Gwanak-gu. The Daehangno (大学路, "University Street") neighborhood where the campus once stood still bears its name from this academic heritage. Today the area serves as Seoul's cultural and theater district, with few visible traces of the colonial-era university remaining.