Fulbright U.S. Education Center

The New York Times online edition has a front-page story today entitled “Traffic Picks Up in World Education.”   It is based partly on data from a new OECD report that shows more students than ever are studying abroad and that the global pattern of student flows is shifting and becoming more complex.

Although the number of students studying in the United States continues to increase, its share of the global market is falling.   The New York Times report also notes the efforts of countries like China and Korea to build world-class universities.

Minister of Education, Science and Technology Ahn, Byung-man has stressed the importance of diversifying the nationalities of foreign students coming to Korea for study.  As reported in the Korea Times, Minister Ahn noted that achieving this goal would have several positive effects, including the cultivation of excellent human resources overseas, the creation of economic added value, and the nurturing of Korea-friendly leaders in other countries.

Minister Ahn also said that the Global Korea Scholarship (GKS), the Korean version of the Fulbright Grant Program in the United States, marks a shift of focus in national policies on foreign students from quantitative expansion to qualitative improvement.

According to a report in today’s Korea Times, the number of foreign students studying at colleges and universities in South Korea now totals 50,591.  This figure is 10,000 more than in April of 2008, a twenty percent year-on-year increase.   40,000 of these students came from China, representing 78 percent of the total.  Mongolia ranked next with 1,632 students, followed by Viet Nam and Japan with 2.9 percent and 2.2 percent respectively.

The number of foreign professors has also increased in recent years.  There are currently 4,127 international educators teaching at Korean colleges, up from 3,433 last year, 2,919 in 2007 and 2,540 in 2006.

We’ve just been informed that a new consortium has been formed in Texas.  It is called Study Texas.

Check out the Study Texas website at www.studytexas.us to find information about why Texas is an ideal choice for higher education, links to information on obtaining visas, information on member institutions’ education programs and curricula and various upcoming events of the coalition!!

Fulbright is discussing with Study Texas the possibilities of jointly publishing Korean-language material for the consortium.  We’ll keep you posted on those developments.

According to a Vietnamese newspaper, over 100 delegates, including policy makers and researchers from both Vietnam and South Korea, gathered on March 26^th at a seminar on educational cooperation, which was jointly organised by the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training, South Korean Embassy in Vietnam, and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Focussing on a range of topics, such as contributions of education to economic development, education and information technology, and vocational training, the participants discussed priorities and policies aimed at creating positive impacts on the development of Vietnam’s education system and improving Vietnam’s national competitiveness in the next decade.

This is one interesting example of other developing countries trying to learn from Korea’s example.  Although distant from each other within the vast Asian region, both Korea and Vietnam have been heavily influenced by Confucian culture, which places great emphasis on education.