Gwangju International Center

Internationalization of Korean Higher Education:

the Need for Quality Consolidation.

Presenter: Eva Marie Wang

Review Writer: Song JeongHyor

Editor: Samuel Winters

Have you ever thought about the internationalization of Korean higher education? This talk provided a good deal of useful information on that very topic! The presenter, Eva Marie Wang, is a native Filipina currently enrolled in graduate studies in a South Korean university, so she was able to share a lot of helpful knowledge as well as give valuable recommendations from first-hand experience.

The topic was about the ‘Internationalization of Korean Higher Education’, which the speaker assured was not as intimidating as it might sound. At the beginning of her presentation, the speaker stated that she wanted to provide the audience with some basic information about the talk’s title and other frequently used words, that way she could unpack some of the weighty terms. The first clarification included the term “higher education”, which we also call “tertiary” or “post-secondary” education. This is the education you get beyond high school, especially at a college or university. “Internationalization”, another term frequently used throughout the talk, is the process by which you integrate international, intercultural or global dimensions to higher education. This includes strategies like student mobility (recruitment of international students), program mobility (dual programs), and institutional mobility (setting up branch campuses of foreign universities in various countries, much like the Songdo Project in Incheon, which includes American satellite campuses in Korea).

After clarifying the core terms used in her talk, the speaker moved on to some more detailed information about efforts to increase and improve the internationalization of Korean higher education. The speaker showed a graph of The Korean International Education Quality Proportion, and spoke in detail about government-led efforts to boost the quality of higher education in Korea. These efforts to improve the quality and increase the competitiveness of higher education in Korea have been intensified under the current president, Lee Myungbak, and have required significant reforms that at times conflict with some of the traditions of Korean higher education. For example, in order to increase Korea’s standing among nations in terms of the amount of studies published, there has been a nascent push to get Korean professors and researchers to increase their output. Despite these changes, Dr. Shin assured the audience after the talk that academics in Korea have largely responded to the changes positively.

Thanks to her first-hand experience with international graduate studies in Korea, the speaker was able to shed light on some of the growing pains she and those around her have encountered within this process of internationalization. She spoke of the difficulties international students often face upon arrival in Korea, like culture shock, lack of social networks and money issues, but was optimistic that the process of internationalization was proving itself to be increasingly competent and worthwhile. Also increasing in coherence are the international students themselves, many of whom have created support networks to share information and aid each other during their sojourn in Korea.

In short, through her talk, the speaker helped to show that the internationalization of Korean higher education is a work in progress. This talk managed to be both very interesting and highly informative. There were many things the audience could take away from the presentation and, just like so many other GIC Talks, it was an enjoyable experience for all.