Korea Times, HUFS to hold essay contest Korea Times President-Publisher Lee Chang-sup, right, shakes hands with Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (HUFS) President Kim In-chul after signing a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in English education at the daily's newsroom in central Seoul, Tuesday. / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk By Chung Hyun-chae The Korea Times and Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (HUFS) will hold an annual English essay contest for elementary, middle and high school students in November. "Our contest will be different from other essay contests as English professors at HUFS will correct all contestants' essays and will send evaluation grade reports to each student," said Korea Times President-Publisher Lee Chang-sup. The university and the English newspaper company will work together to select topics for the essay contest and English professors at HUFS will evaluate and score the essays. The university's Foreign Language Examination Center will be in charge of promoting the event. "We will also work on developing learning materials related to the contest," said HUFS President Kim In-chul. Students from third grade in elementary school to their final year of high school can take part in the contest. They have to apply for the preliminary round online, and only those who pass that round can move up to the final that will be held on the HUFS campus in Seoul. "Given that professors of English from one of the best universities in Korea will systematically look over the entries, participants will be able to identify their weaknesses in English writing, for example, vocabulary, construction of sentences and logical thinking," said Lee Dong-ill, dean of the College of English at HUFS. He expects about 2,000 to 3,000 students will participate in the contest. The leaders of the newspaper and the university signed the agreement Tuesday on academic exchanges and English-education business initiatives including launching the essay contest.  "This new tie-up will hopefully steer public English education in the right direction," said President-Publisher Lee during the agreement ceremony. Under the accord, the university plans to actively use The Korea Times as teaching material on campus to help its students learn practical English. Also, the newspaper will run programs for HUFS students interested in becoming journalists offering internships and a tour of the newsroom. "By cooperating with The Korea Times, which has been taking the initiative in internationalizing the nation, our university will try to play a leading role in promoting Korean higher education to the world," Kim said. x hcchung@ktimes.com,