[Editorial] Korea’s Failing Universities

In an era of global competition, universities are the engines that lead the world’s knowledge economies. Universities across the world are competing with one another to attract the brightest minds.

But the situation in Korea goes against this global trend. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) advised last year that the country reform its education sector to facilitate competition and ease regulations, saying “Korea’s education system is failing to enhance the competition of its knowledge economy.”

Although the Roh Moo-hyun administration is supporting the specialization of universities in the Seoul Metropolitan area, the effects of this support are uncertain. That is because the administration does not recognize self-control of universities, which is needed for enhancing the competitiveness of universities. President Roh argued, “The government intervenes in the college entrance exam to protect and promote public education.” But no country whose government intervenes in college admissions has highly competitive universities.

Shanghai Jiao Tong University recently released a list of the world’s top 20 universities. Although 17 U.S. universities are on the list, there is no department responsible for university affairs in the U.S. government. University administrations led by university presidents make decisions on its own about admissions, professors, and cooperation with industry. The U.S. government spends just 2.7 percent of its gross domestic product on supporting universities.

Unlike their U.S. counterparts, universities in Europe are seeing their competitiveness undermined by excessive intervention by their government. Cambridge and Oxford Universities of the U.K. are the only European universities on the top 20 list. The high youth unemployment rate of France, which recently soared up to 23 percent and resulted in unrest, is not unrelated to the country’s low university competitiveness. No French universities are on the list of the world’s top 40 universities.

The situation is more serious in Korea. Korea ranked 59th among 60 countries in the “effectiveness of university education” research poll by the IMD international business school based in Switzerland.

The OECD recommended a readjustment (reduce in reality) in the role of the central government so that universities can compete with one another. The organization said that countries should increase competition among universities by publicizing assessment of faculty and employment rates of graduates, and by establishing foreign universities.

In Korea, however, a teacher who offered an unbelievable election pledge of “standardization of universities,” was elected the new chairman of the Korea Teachers and Education Workers’ Union. Kim Jin-pyo, deputy prime minister of education, is busy intervening in university admissions, saying, “Raise the proportion of school grades and reduce the emphasis on the College Scholastic Ability Test when selecting students.”

On the occasion of 86th anniversary of its establishment, Dong-A Ilbo began publishing its “small but strong university” series two days ago, in which it introduces competitive universities overseas. Shih Choon Fong, president of the National University of Singapore which is to be introduced in the series, said, “It is hard for a university to compete with world-class universities in the world if its management, including selection of students, is limited.”

The world is rushing to reform secondary education to send more excellent students to more excellent universities. The U.S. disciplines junior-high schools whose students post lower grades with the No Child Left Behind Act. Finland, known as a “world power in education” has principals and teachers be responsible for each student’s academic performance. That is because quality of secondary education depends on quality and efforts of teachers. Last week, Harvard University released a report which argued differentiate teachers’ salary depending on students’ academic performance, kick incompetent teachers out of school and promote competition among schools, saying, “The militant teachers’ labor union undermines education.”

By contrast, the new chairman of Korean teachers’ union pledged to deter teacher assessment and restructuring of workers in the education sector and reduce hours of classes. This means that the new chairman wants to help teachers and students of the country live in a competition-free world. If this comes true, teachers will enjoy their vested interest, but the country will become the retarded country in the world.

Worse yet, education policy of the incumbent government is almost the same as that of the teachers’ union. One might wonder if the country could become strong in education and nurture talent under the government and the teachers’ union which argue education populism. Because of the sense of crisis on education, 25 percent of respondents of an opinion poll conducted by the Dong-A Ilbo said they wanted to emigrate for education if possible.

It is a crime against the public to undermine future competitiveness with the socialist education policy which already proved failure overseas. The country should change its policy into that which values self-control and competition before it lags behind China and India in education.