The Institutionalization of Neoliberal Ideas in the Management and Evaluation of Higher Education in Korea and Japan

Purpose This chapter provides a historical overview of policies on higher education in South Korea since 1945 and illustrates growth of science production based on expansion of higher education.

This article analyses the policy and practices of restructuring higher education in South Korea in light of the distinctive characteristics of Korean higher education development and government–higher education relations. The role of government in the development of higher education in Korea has been typically as a direct regulator rather than a coordinator. However, the global trend towards neo-liberal policies, such as privatization and a ‘lean’ state which coordinates market competition, began to be influential in Korea during the 1990s, which eventually led to a shift in higher education policies. There is a public rhetoric about neo-liberal public sector reforms and restructuring; and policy implementations are being made accordingly. The article critically reviews the current government's political rationale for restructuring higher education against the backdrop of ‘globalization’. It is suggested that despite such influences, the Ministry of Education (MOE) has not yet shifted its role in regulating the higher education sector: the fundamental relations of the MOE and the higher education sector have not changed. This article discusses why and how the relations of government to higher education are, in fact, unchanging in Korea.

This study examines the evolution and current challenges of Catholic Higher Education (CHE) in South Korea within the context of globalization and neoliberal educational reform. It explores how Korean Catholic universities balance their distinctive mission with intensifying pressures for competitiveness, external validation, and adaptation to secular academic norms. Drawing on P. Boudieu’s field theory and H. Richard Niebuhr’s typology of Christian responses to culture, the analysis frames the ways institutions of Korean CHE navigate the sometimes contrary currents of their institutional aims—simultaneously striving for academic excellence and maintaining Catholic identity. Case studies of three major Korean Catholic universities illustrate how leadership and curricular programs reflect the ongoing negotiation between mission-driven imperatives and market demands. The paper contends that living within this tension is not a sign of deficiency. It can actually be a source of resilience and innovation. The Korean experience of CHE offers insights for Catholic universities facing similar dilemmas globally, suggesting that engaging proactively with the seemingly contrary paradoxical demands can sustain the integrity of mission while fostering adaptive capacity amid the rapidly changing landscape of higher education.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze the policy trends for the internationalization of higher education in Korea, and suggest a future direction toward the pursuit of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).Design/methodology/approachThis paper presents a case study of Korea focusing on its internationalization in higher education. In order to analyze the government policy trends and institutional strategies for internationalization, the relevant literature and documents were analyzed.FindingsThe government policy for the internationalization of higher education in Korea has consisted of three stages: first, controlled outbound mobility; second, a major shift and focus on inbound mobility, recently along with intraregional cooperation for both directions of mobility in Asia and third, the beginning of efforts toward the pursuit of the SDGs, which needs to be expanded and systematized further.Originality/valueThis paper shows presents the comprehensive review of internationalization policies in Korean higher education, including the recent programs and changes at both the governmental and institutional levels. There has been a notable lack of discussion on the SDGs in relation to the internationalization of Korean higher education, which is addressed in this paper.

This paper examines the main issues regarding higher education in Korea—where college education experienced minimal interruptions—during the COVID-19 pandemic through a big data analysis of news articles. By analyzing policy responses from the government and colleges and examining prominent discourses on higher education, it provides a context for discussing the implications of COVID-19 on education policy and what the post-pandemic era would bring. To this end, we utilized BIgKinds, a big data research solution for news articles offered by the Korea Press Foundation, to select a total of 2636 media reports and conducted Topic Modelling based on LDA algorithms using NetMiner. The analyses are split into three distinct periods of COVID-19 spread in the country. Some notable topics from the first phase are remote class, tuition refund, returning Chinese international students, and normalization of college education. Preparations for the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), contact and contactless classes, preparations for early admissions, and supporting job market candidates are extracted for the second phase. For the third phase, the extracted topics include CSAT and college-specific exams, quarantine on campus, social relations on campus, and support for job market candidates. The results confirmed widespread public attention to the relevant issues but also showed empirically that the measures taken by the government and college administrations to combat COVID-19 had limited visibility among media reports. It is important to note that timely and appropriate responses from the government and colleges have enabled continuation of higher education in some capacity during the pandemic. In addition to the media’s role in reporting issues of public interest, there is also a need for continued research and discussion on higher education amid COVID-19 to help effect actual results from various policy efforts.

The purpose of this study is to examine the historical factors which affected the rise of modern higher education during the late Choson period (1880-1910), and to analyze the implications of these historical factors on educational policies in contemporary higher education in Korea. The rise of modern higher education in Korea can be viewed as occurring in three principal phases: Confucian Choson Royal Government, Western Christian missionaries, and patriotic nationalists. The author points out that the major historical factors influencing the development of modern higher education were Confucianism, Christianity, and Korean nationalism. In particular, Confucianism and Christianity have had substantial impacts on the planning of educational policies in contemporary Korean higher education; the former is viewed as an original source of educational enthusiasm which has expanded Korean higher education, and the latter a matrix of modern Korean higher education which has embodied educational enthusiasm.

ABSTRACTThis study aims to identify historic external influences on Korean higher education in relation to traditional values and to provide an overview of contemporary major Western influences. Based on a critical review of the literature, the study explores how traditional values and practices have interacted with recent external influences in Korean higher education. The remainder of this article is organized into four major sections. The first section describes the development of higher education in Korea from a historical perspective, focusing on external influences from China, Japan and the US. The second section analyses the values and culture of Korean higher education in terms of Western influences, Asian values and traditional Korean values. The third section presents the contemporary impacts of the West on Korean higher education, particularly on recent national reform policies brought about by global changes in higher education. Finally, the article discusses the changes in values and culture in Korean higher education caused by external environmental changes in policy at the institutional and individual levels.

This paper begins with a trip down memory lane from the inception on the evaluation of higher education in our country, the process of accreditation, size of the system, programs evaluated by CIEES, and COPAES, and the total coverage rate in Mexico. Follow by an explanation about the initiation of evaluation and accreditation of higher education in the United States of America. Who validate the examiners? The main similarities and differences of these systems are analyzed. Lastly, there is a discussion of personal conclu- sions arising from the analysis. The purpose of this, is to understand the systems of evaluation and accreditation in Mexico´s higher education and the United States, the interest arises because of the proximity of these countries and their close relationship in regards to educational in- terdependence, especially in Mexican border populations that seek to immerse themselves within the higher education schemes of the neighbor country. This study shows the similarities and differences between the evaluation and accredi- tation systems in both countries in the following aspects: Size of the higher education system, assessment/accreditation bodies, evaluation/ accreditation processes, results in the quality of education. This is a descriptive, comparative analysis exercise on the higher education systems of the two countries using their own variables.

Objectives This study reports on a review of research concerning service-learning in higher education in Korea over the past 22 years (from 2001 to 2022).
 Methods A total of 25 KCI-indexed empirical studies were analyzed in terms of their publication date, research methodology, service-learning characteristics, and research themes.
 Results The results indicate that research on service-learning in the context of Korean higher education was not widely conducted until the early 2010s; however, studies have significantly increased since the latter half of the 2010s. Qualitative research methodology emerged as the most popular method in examining the experiences of college students’ engagement in service-learning. In most of the reviewed studies, service-learning was im-plemented in a semester-long curricular-based format, with service hours varying from 16 to 48 hours. Students’ involvement in service-learning was found to be closely related to their personal, academic, and social growth.
 Conclusions Given that research on service-learning in higher education in Korea is in its infancy, more studies are needed, particularly those spanning diverse academic disciplines. These studies are crucial for achieving a comprehensive understanding of how service-learning experience contributes to Korean college students’ devel-opment as active citizens with social responsibility. The feedback on students’ reflection, promoted during the process of service-learning, warrants further investigation. This will enhance our understadning of the intricate relationship between reflection and successful learning via participation in service-learning.

ABSTRACTThis article examines why universities in Korea champion internationalisation and aggressively recruit foreign students with diverse ethnic backgrounds, yet resist ideas of valorising diversity. Through a qualitative analysis of university curricula at three major Korean universities, ethnographic interviews with 50 foreign students and focus groups interviews with 30 Korean students, I find that despite recent internationalisation efforts, notions of ethnic nationalism remain firmly entrenched at the level of university curricula and also at the level of micro-level interactions between foreign and domestic students. I explain this as an instance of Korea's continued attempts to selectively adopt elements of globalisation for national interests, a familiar paradigm in Korea's historical legacy of social change. Such an instrumentalist approach to the internationalisation of higher education in Korea also confirms global cultural theory, especially the kinds of disjunctures that might result among various types of global flows. Thus I seek to contribute to a growing literature on diversity in higher education in Asia as well as to educational debates on global/local processes and mechanisms of cultural change.

한국 고등교육의 국가지배 메커니즘에 관한 고찰 - 국립대학의 사례를 중심으로 -

This article presents and analyzes a newly developed model of inbound internationalization of higher education in Korea—a demand-based, locally oriented, hybrid model of internationalization. This model combines existing features of internationalization—the typical study-abroad model in which international students are taught in the host country’s primary language and the decade-long Korean internationalization model, in which international students are educated in separate academic programs—with recently developed, demand-based educational programs. While conventional, English-language-driven internationalization strategies such as increasing the number of English as a medium of instruction (EMI) courses still exist, this hybrid model is becoming popular among Korean higher education institutions. Yet, although this model may seem better than conventional strategies, it still does not solve a main challenge of internationalization, academic capitalism—and it even reproduces it. This article is meant to help higher education institutions in developing countries whose primary language is not English to develop new internationalization strategies.

Universities pays a lot of attention and investment in the technology commercialization for its sustainable development and social contribution under Korean government-driven policies. However, when compared to US or European universities, the outcomes of the technology commercialization in universities are relatively inactive. Therefore, this study aims to propose a new idea-oriented framework of University-Technology Commercialization (UTC). To achieve this, this study explores the sustainable mechanism from idea to technology commercialization in the volatile environment by employing dynamic capabilities framework. This study employed structural equation modeling (SEM) to identify causal relationships among the variables with a 2014 to 2016 dataset from ‘Higher Education in KOREA’. This study collected national and cross-sectional data from different time periods to design our longitudinal study. Our study examines UTC activities related to sustainable idea development mechanism from dynamic capability framework. The results show the importance of start-up clubs as a first step for idea exploration in university technology commercialization and patents as important for both technology transfers and start-ups. Our findings offer new UTC directions for university policy makers.

Christianity played an important role in modern higher education in Korea. The oldest university in Korea is the Yonhee Professional College founded by Underwood, an American Christian missionary. Also the first medical school, Severance Medical School, was founded by a Christian missionary. Christian educational institutions have historically had a significant impact on Korean society in terms of the independence movement, enlightenment, literacy, and modern knowledge.

Since the new century, the main theme of my country’s higher education is to improve the quality of teaching. To this end, the education administrative department and the vast number of colleges and universities have done a lot of work. Looking back, this teaching quality construction involving thousands of colleges and universities across the country has attracted much attention from all walks of life. The government as the organizer promotes the active participation of colleges and universities in the form of teaching evaluation under the leadership of administrative authority and the “quality engineering” project with resources and reputation, which has played a huge role in improving the teaching quality of colleges and universities. The teaching quality evaluation in higher education is a classical multi-attribute group decision-making (MAGDM) issue. Recently, the Exponential TODIM (ExpTODIM) method has been used to cope with MAGDM issues. The 2-tuple linguistic neutrosophic sets (2TLNSs) are used as a tool for characterizing uncertain information during the teaching quality evaluation in higher education. In this paper, the 2-tuple linguistic neutrosophic number ExpTODIM (2TLNN-ExpTODIM) is built to solve the MAGDM under 2TLNSs. In the end, a numerical case study for teaching quality evaluation in higher education is given to validate the proposed method. The main contribution of this paper is constructed: (1) the Exponential TODIM (ExpTODIM) method is extended to the PLTSs; (2) the 2-tuple linguistic neutrosophic number ExpTODIM (2TLNN-ExpTODIM) is built to solve the MAGDM under 2TLNSs; (3) Finally, a numerical case study for teaching quality evaluation in higher education is given to validate the proposed method.