The University of Seoul and the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP) have celebrated the first graduates of their jointly established Department of Sustainable Urban Planning and Development. The university said Monday that the graduation ceremony was held at RUPP’s campus in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on July 31 for 31 students who completed the department’s undergraduate program. The event marked the first graduation since the department was established in 2022. The graduation represented a major milestone in the Leading University Project for International Cooperation, which has been led by the Korean government and implemented by the University of Seoul’s International School of Urban Sciences since 2021. The initiative has been funded by the Ministry of Education and supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea. In May 2022, the two universities received approval to establish Cambodia’s first urban planning department. They have since incorporated the University of Seoul’s urban planning curriculum and Korea’s expertise in urban development into the department’s a