Fulbright U.S. Education Center

According to an article in the Joongang Daily today, Korea’s top public university is taking one step closer to Ivy League schools in the United States. Seoul National University officials said yesterday that they will begin taking a more integrated approach to admissions. “We previously had to follow the admission requirements provided by the Korean government, but now it is time to bring autonomy to university admission systems,” said Kim Young-jung, the director of admissions at SNU.  While before college entrance exam test scores and high school transcripts were enough to assure admission to SNU, the new approach will emphasize academic potential and student character, officials said. The officials said yesterday they will employ Cornell University associate provost for admissions Doris Davis to make the changes a reality.  See the Joongang Daily here for the full story.

The Academic Credit Bank system (ACBS) is an open educational system which recognizes diverse learning experiences gained not only in-school but also out-of school. When the learner accumulates the necessary ACBS-approved credits, he/she can be awarded a degree.  The Academic Credit Bank System, a central agency for continuing education, aims to provide all citizens with greater access to a variety of educational opportunities and to foster a lifelong learning society. It seeks to innovate, diversify and maximize the educational opportunities for both students, studying at post-secondary institutes, and adults, seeking additional education and training.

The ACBS is intended to benefit the following groups:

 Credits are acquired primarily through education and job training institutes, part-time enrollment, certificate acquisition, and passing the Bachelor’s Degree Examination program for self-education. The ACBS also grants recognition to a learner’s diverse learning experiences, including prior course credits and various forms of learning.

 Educational institutes are formally evaluated to be an ACBS-accredited institute offering courses which can be counted as university or college equivalent credits.

 The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST), the National Institute for Lifelong Education (NILE), and Provincial Offices of Education are involved in the administration of the Credit Bank.

 For further information: https://www.cb.or.kr/indexs.html ( for English click ‘English’ button on the top right corner)

Until 2005, Korean high schools used the Su, Wu, Mi, Yang, Ga system utilizing a raw score scale of 0-100 as follows;

In this absolute system for evaluation, 100% of total students can fall into ‘Su’ or 0% can fall into ‘Su,’ depending on the actual distribution of raw scores.

From 2005, the evaluation system was changed to a grading system utilizing 9 levels or ranks. There is a level indicated in each subject. In the transcript, you might see students’ achievement in the following form or something very similar.

Units: credit units or credit hours per week.
Score: raw score of the student on a scale of 0-100.
Average: school wide average score of the subject in the given semester.
SD: Standard Deviation.
Rank: student’s level of standing on a scale of 1 to 9: with 1, the highest and 9 the lowest. 

Enrollment: total number of students who completed the subject/course in the given semester

The percentage of students in each level may be presented as follows;

This new system uses a relative evaluation where we can find a student’s achievement compared to other students within the school.  While this ranking system helps to compare a students standing with others within the same school, we should keep in mind that there are some schools which enroll only the  top 5-10% of Korea’s best students. Students in those top schools with levels of 8 or 9 can be better than students from other schools with levels of 1 or 2.  In fact, to ensure a better evaluation of their high school records, some students in top-ranked high schools actually drop out of school and take Korean GED.

Over the past decade or more, I have had countless conversations with U.S. university, college or boarding school administrators responsible for student enrollment and recruitment.   Yesterday, for example, Dr. Stephen Allen, Executive Director of Enrollment Management at Southern Utah University, visited our offices and we had a valuable conversation about his university and their use of our promotional services.  In every one of these conversations with representatives of U.S. schools, the topic of localization arises.  This leads me to propound “Larson’s Law on Localization,” as follows. 

Larson’s Law on Localization:  To effectively promote a school or other educational products and services in Korea, all key promotional information should be translated into Korean and adapted to local media patterns.

This basic law or principle of consumer behavior and the Korean education market may seem obvious to you, but it is not universally understood or accepted.    We regularly hear the argument that “Korean students are planning to study in the U.S.  Therefore, they need to have a command of English in order to apply to and consider our school, or attend a study fair.”  This argument ignores the fact that Koreans normally think, listen, speak and write in their native language.  It also ignores the crucial reality that a student’s parents, who frequently will foot the bill for education in the U.S., are also interested in the information.  They may or may not have a strong command of English.

This is only an initial post on this issue, but I think it deserves the status of a “law,” akin to the well-known Moore’s law, stated many years ago by the founder of Intel.  After all, Korea has a culture that is thousands of years old, strong respect for education and an alphabet that ranks as its top cultural asset.  It stands to reason that Koreans will expect some important points to be delivered, through whatever medium, in their own language.  In marketing communications terms, this country probably represents the ideal case of a nation where “localization” rather than “globalization” of the promotional message is required. 

Fulbright Korea, as an established bi-national organization here in South Korea, has unique credibility and also excellent resources to assist U.S.-based schools, colleges, universities and other educational organizations.  Localization is one of our core competencies.  I encourage your questions and reactions, and we will be happy to answer any questions you might have.

The association of foreign language institutes (institute is hagwon in Korean) says that the government should block the inflow of unqualified native English teachers, making clear its opposition to a policy to increase the number of “questionable instructors.’’  According to an article in the Korea Times, “The Korea Association of Foreign Language Academies (KAFLA) complained that the government was “recklessly’’ opening the door to foreigners without building any safeguard against unqualified teachers. The association has about 7,000 members.  The association said the Korea Immigration Service (KIS) does not retain data on foreign nationals who have had work experience here. “No hagwon owners want to work with unqualified foreigners. Most hagwon employers terminate contracts of unacceptable foreigners, those guilty of sexual harassment or taking drugs,” general director Choi Chang-jin said.”  The article also noted that hagwon owners said they will not hire teachers from the proposed association for native English-speaking instructors, a union-like body.  Currently, some 17,500 foreigners are registered with the KIS on English-teaching visas, but if ethnic Koreans are added, the number doubles. KIS estimates about 50,000 foreigners teach English here, including those who are doing so illegally.

The Korea Times reports that “More than a quarter of college seniors and recent graduates in a survey said they have researched overseas employment while an overwhelming 95 percent of respondents said they would be open to working overseas if good opportunities arose.

The survey was conducted by online recruitment firm Jobkorea between April 17 to May 9. Overall, 635 college seniors and recent graduates looking for work have responded to the e-mail survey, according to the firm.”

The Korea Times reports that the number of elementary school students has fallen by more than one-third over the past 28 years as married couples have become more reluctant to have children because of high childcare and education costs. “According to the National Statistical Office (NSO), Tuesday, the number of young people aged 6-21 totaled 10.2 million nationwide this year, down 29 percent from 14.4 million in 1980. In particular, children aged 6-11, who attend elementary schools, numbered 3.64 million, down 33.7 percent from 5.5 million 28 years ago.

The number of adolescents aged 12-14 dropped 20.3 percent to 2.07 million from 1980, while the country’s high school students totaled 2.03 million, down 24 percent from 2.67 million over the same period. The number of young adults aged 18-21 who mostly enroll at universities has decreased 24.2 percent to 2.47 million from 3.63 million. With fewer elementary, middle and high school students, the ratio of students to teacher has fallen to a record low. One teacher was responsible for 23 students on average at elementary schools last year, down from 30 in 2000.”

The Bank of Korea recently conducted a study showing that expenditure on private tutoring did not increase a student’s chances of securing university admission.  The chart that accompanied the article (click on the thumbnail above to see a full-size version) clearly shows two long term trends.  First, the blue line measured against the right-hand axis of the graph, shows that the proportion of household income spent on education increased from 7.7 percent in 1985 to 11 percent in 2006.  Second, the ratio of private tutoring to total education costs, depicted by the orange line, soared to 81.1 percent in 2006 from 18.3 percent in 1985.