Favoritism rampant in academia

"SNU graduate - 0 point, Alma Mater - 30" (Score sheet by professor who did not graduate from SNU)

"SNU graduate - 30 points, non-SNU - 5" (Score sheet by a professor who graduated from SNU)

Last Summer, a public university sought to fill a teaching post vacancy for one of its majors. The department in which half of the professors were graduates of the Seoul National University, while the other half were graduates of the university in question selected two possible candidates, one SNU graduate and the other a fellow alumnus.

After having audited the lectures of the applicants, the evaluations by the professors showed extreme discrepancy and forced the university to suspend filling the vacancy.

Such is an example of the detrimental alma mater favoritism, which eats away at our academic competitiveness.

The Ministry of Education revised the laws concerning educators at public institutions last September and banned hiring of educators "who have graduated from a specific university" resulting in more than two-thirds of the faculty sharing the same alma mater. However, the long-rooted favoritism and "birds of the same feather" mentality in the academic circle needs more than revision of laws to dislodge.

"The faculty meeting is more like a school reunion. There is joke that the assistant professors are nothing more than errand boys for their senior professors (from their alma mater)," an assistant professor at a university in North Kyongsang Province said.

A full-time lecturer at Seoul National University said: "It's difficult to question the theories subscribed to by alma mater professors. It's more a personal matter than not."

An SNU graduate lecturer said: "Everything depends on whether the senior professors take a liking to you. If not, you will be unable to obtain a teaching post."

Those who have just embarked on a career in academia have boldly criticized the "in-crowd" culture within the university faculties.

"The professors attempt to hire their fellow alumni in a selfish attempt to build a fortress around themselves as a guarantee for a long career," another educator said, adding that in such situations, there isn't room for "qualitative leap through checks and balances."

Recognizing such detrimental favoritism, the Ministry of Education enacted a quota system limiting the number of professors from the same alma mater sitting on the faculty of a single university, a system that "might result in the qualified person from not being hired due to the quota having been met."

However, after a year since the enactment of the quota, the "covert mechanism of alma mater favoritism" still exists.

"94.7% - 95.1%" - Seoul National University

"80.8% - 79.2%" - Yonsei University

"61.1% - 65.7%" - Korea University

The percentages represent the number of professors in the university faculty who have graduated from the very university in which they teach. Since the enactment of the quota, there hasn't been any noticeable change.

Of the 36 persons hired by SNU, only one person was not an SNU graduate, and some university departments went on a hiring binge adding three non-alma mater professors just prior to the enactment of the revised law. Especially in the law, medical and dental departments of SNU, nearly all the faculty members are SNU graduates.

SNU is not an exception. Other universities are not much different. In many of the universities, professors sharing the alma mater build fortresses and keep out all non-alma maters.

"At some schools, the faculty of professors from the regions who share a common alma mater takes a firm hold resulting in a feud with the professors from universities in Seoul," a professor at a private university in North Cholla Province said.

Such situations are not easily found in Europe or the United States. The reason is simple: Such alma mater favoritism is considered "in-breeding," which results in weakening the academic competitive edge and annihilating the creative nature of the research.

As such, in most of the universities in the United States, the percentage of faculty members from same alma mater stands at most 10%.

In the case of Harvard University in 1910, 70% of the professors were from the same university. However, the imbalance was addressed year after year and currently Harvard has only 10% of the faculty members who have graduated from Harvard.

In the case of Stanford University, it only has a handful of professors who have graduated from Stanford.

Those in the academic circle bemoan the lack of legal reprimands accompanying the revision of the laws regarding faculty constituency in public universities.

"If the problem of alma mater favoritism was left to the conscience of the professors, it might never be resolved," law professor at Kookmin University Kim Dong-Hoon said. "The government must cut funding or freeze the quota for schools failing to meet the law."

There are some calling for the requirement of having taught at other universities prior to returning to the alma mater and finding a teaching post. In response, the Ministry of Education stated, "We are currently considering the funding freeze or curtailment for the universities that do not keep with the quota and fail to redress the alma mater favoritism. However, the enforcement of prior teaching post away from alma mater has certain aspects which violate the Constitution."

Lee Hun-Jin mungchii@donga.com