In the heart of Seoul’s Gangnam-gu education hub, SM Entertainment launched an idol training school “SM UNIVERSE.”
Opened on the 15th, SM UNIVERSE is located near Hangnyeoul Station, close to Daechi-dong’s academies.
SM UNIVERSE is a place created by SM to nurture global artists. In order to expand the scope of education, SM has joined forces with the top modeling agency ESTEEM, and Jongno Academy. It operates on a three-year semester system and has five majors: producing, vocal, dance, modeling, and acting. SM UNIVERSE targets high school students who dream of becoming artists, and a GED course, handled by Jongno Academy, will be provided for them.
An SM UNIVERSE official shared, “The GED course consists of three hours of classes per day in the first semester. As classes run from morning until afternoon, it may be difficult to take classes in schools, so dropouts may be the majority.”
SM UNIVERSE will accept 120 students per semester, with 40 for vocals and 20 for each of the other majors. The entrance fee is quite expensive. For vocal majors, it costs 100 million won (about $77,000) per semester, and excluding vacations, it is 2.5 million won (about $2,000) a month. The remaining majors cost 88 million won (about $67,700) per semester. Students are selected through auditions.
CEO of SM UNIVERSE is Jang Jae Ho, the chief strategy officer (CSO) of SM Entertainment. The website mentions Lee Soo Man, the chief producer, Lee Sung Soo, CEO of SM Entertainment, as well as Kangta, Bada, and TVXQ’s Yunho as the mentors.
Source (1)
