Evolution of Universities and Government Policy: the case of South Korea

Abstract

This paper investigates the two academic revolutions of the Korean higher education system. Since economic catch-up began in the 1960s, Korea has strongly encouraged the activities of its higher education system to serve industrial development as it has progressed through various developmental stages. At the 'strong regulation' stage, universities focused on the provision of technicians. As the need for higher education grew, the 'massive expansion' stage emerged. Finally, most recently, university research and its direct contribution to the economy have been invigorated by strong governmental support. Possibly, this is due to the fact that the Korean government has strongly controlled not only industry but also academia. As long as other East Asian universities have similar conditions to those of the development of Korean universities, we can generalise this model not only to universities in other East Asian countries, but also to universities in other rapid catch-up countries.