Fulbright U.S. Education Center

English education and English testing have perennially been high profile topics for public discussion in Korea.  That, in and of itself, is not surprising in this country which has built a modern education system almost from scratch in the span of just over half a century.   However, the public discussions these days are especially intense, as outlined by a report earlier this week in the Korea Times, entitled “Can Ahn’s English Education Overhaul Succeed?”

The lead sentence of the article points out that Minister of Education, Science and Technology Ahn Byong-man has been fighting against increasing private education costs since he took office in 2008.  One key part of his effort to cut these costs is a new evaluation program for teachers.  Under his leadership, the Ministry will conduct teacher evaluation programs at all elementary and secondary schools, starting from the Spring semester this March.  Minister Ahn believes the quality of teachers is pivotal to public education and hopes it will help parents and students to break from their reliance on private education institutes or hagwons.

A second project within the Ministry aimed at containing private education costs is the development of an English proficiency exam.  Last week, Ahn announced that colleges can use the results of the state-developed English tests in selecting students from 2012, when the exam is scheduled to debut.  Ahn said, “I am trying to persuade college and university presidents to discontinue the use of TOEFL and TOEIC scores for admissions as soon as possible.”

On Monday, January 4, the first workday of the new Year, a representative of Alamo Colleges, a group of five community colleges in the greater San Antonio area of Texas, visited the U.S. Education Center.  Steven Lewis, Director of the Service, Trade and Industry Center (STIC) braved Seoul’s heaviest snowfall in a century to make the visit.  (the snow is visible in the photo accompanying this post–click on the photo to see a full size version).

Mr. Lewis met with U.S. Education Center and web team staff, including Fulbright Deputy Director Jim Larson.  He also met with Executive Director, Shim Jai Ok.

Discussions centered around Alamo Colleges Korean students, its alumni in Korea, strategies for future recruitment, and possible partnership with Fulbright’s U.S. Education Center.  It was a snowy day, but a warm start for the New Year thanks to this visit!

According to a report in The Korea Times, the government is poised to encourage Korean universities to stabilize their tuition rates, which have risen rapidly in recent years.  The Minister of Strategy and Finance said on Sunday that the Ministry is considering penalizing colleges that raise their tuition too steeply.  The penalties would involve offering less financial subsidies to the colleges or loans to their students.

During the first decade of the new millennium, tuition outgrew inflation.  The growth rate of the former hovered between 5 and 10 percent while that of the latter was in the vicinity of 3 percent.  This means students and their parents have struggled with an increased burden, with average annual tuition standing at as much as 10 million won.

An article in The Korea Times today notes that many new service businesses are doing well in Korea.   In particular, it observes that foreign language institutes, primarily teaching English, saw sales increase by 25.2 percent in 2008.   Online English classes saw sales rise 38.1 percent.

As reported in the Joongang Daily today, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology has announced that applicants to foreign language high schools who say they received private education or tutoring will be disadvantaged.  This is the Ministry’s latest effort to address concerns that changes in the foreign language high school’s admission process will further overheat the private education market.   The Ministry had earlier announced that foreign language high schools would introduce an admission process that emphasized “self-study” in 2011.

Admissions officers will measure “self study” in various ways, including interviews, examination of study plans and letters of recommendation.  English listening tests, written exams and interviews asking about applicant’s knowledge of specific subjects will be banned.  The Ministry also said that applicants who report their scores for foreign language aptitude tests, such as TOEFL, will lose points.

Another visitor to Fulbright’s U.S. Education Center on September 28, 2009 was Ms. Katie McCarney, Assistant Director of International Admission at the College of Saint Benedict, Saint John’s University.    She is pictured below (click to see larger version) with Fulbright Deputy Director Jim Larson (left) and Fulbright Network Administrator John Phillips on the right.

On September 28, 2009 Leslie Peters Aest, Director of International Marketing for Seattle Central Community College visited Fulbright’s U.S. Education Center.  She met with staff to discuss her college’s recruitment efforts and developments in Korea’s education market.  Pictured below, from left to right are Jim Larson, Fulbright Korea’s Deputy Director, Leslie Peters Aest, and Mrs. Yu, Munkyeong, Fulbright Senior Education Advisor. (click on the photo to see a larger version)

On September 28, Jonathon Neeley, International Student Advisor at Columbus College of Art and Design visited Fulbright’s U.S. Education Center.  He is pictured below with James Larson, Fulbright’s Deputy Director and John Phillips, Network Administrator. (click on photo to see a larger version)

Earlier this Fall on October 30 Kari K. Gazdich, Director of Admissions for the Information Networking Institute at Carnegie Mellon University visited Fulbright and held an information session for prospective students in our 6th floor conference room.  (pictured in the photo above.  Click on the photo to see a larger version)

She was accompanied on her visit by Mr. Jong Woo KWAK, Consultant with the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry.   He is pictured with her during in the photography below which was taken during discussions in the U.S. Education Center.

On September 29 of this year, Donald R. Back, Director of the Language and Culture Institute, which is part of Outreach and International Affairs at Virginia Tech University visited Fulbright’s U.S. Education Center.  We apologize for this delayed post regarding his visit.  His visit included a broad and useful discussion of trends in the Korean education market, student recruitment, and digital media developments.   Pictured in the photo above, from left to right are Fulbright Deputy Director James Larson, Donald Back, and Fulbright Executive Director Shim Jai Ok. (click on the photo to see a full-size version)