한국교육개발원에서는 한국과 중남미 간의 교육 발전을 위한 지식 공유와 파트너십 구축을 위한 노력의 일환으로, 우리나라의
교육발전과 국가발전 과정과 고등교육 분야를 중심으로 한 주요 교육정책을 소개하고 중남미와의 협력을 위한 시사점을 모색해
보고자 한다.
The Development and Expansion of Higher Education Sector in the Republic of Korea
Heejin Park, Research Fellow
Korean Educational Development Institute (KEDI)
Korea has invested heavily in education and the development of an education system aligned
with its national development plans by adopting a sequential approach, both in terms of school
levels and the quantity andquality of education. Working on one educational level at a time,
Korea has focused on developing its educational system, beginning with primary education in the 1950s,
secondary education in the 1970s and 1980s, and higher education in the 1990s and 2000s.
The first goals pertained to meeting demand for the quantity of education provided.
The universalization of primary, secondary, and higher education was achieved in 1957,
1999, 2000 respectively. Now, Korea has started to invest in factors that aim to improve the quality of
education, using metrics such as pupil-teacher ratios, class size, students’ satisfaction with school,
and research and development outcomes of higher education institutions (HEIs).
This sequential development strategy of Korea is distinguished from those of countries in LAC
and Africa, which were at a similar stage of development as Korea in the 1960s, but invested
at every level of education simultaneously. As a result of the unique approach, Korea has accomplished
education development in quantity
as well as quality in a relatively short time. Korean students have consistently achieved high scores
on internationalacademic assessments for more than a decade.
In addition to high academic achievement, the Korean educational system tries to nurture the development
of non-cognitive skills of students, such as compassion, communication, responsibility, creativity,
passion etc., to enable them to work collaboratively and effectively in the increasingly
global, technological and knowledge-based economy.
At the higher education level, attention is directed to the global competitiveness of universities
internationally and governments continue to increase their investments in higher education in an
attempt to raise the research and development capacity of their country. Korea also makes
enormous efforts to improve its education system tobetter meet the demands of the ever-evolving society.
Due to the government’s sequential approach to educational development, investment in higher
education really only began in the 1990s. In the last two decades, tax money has been poured into
this sector in an effort to improve the quality and competitiveness of universities and colleges.
The number of institutions increased dramatically in this time period.
In 2014 there were 433 higher education institutions in Korea. In 2013, the higher education budget
increased to almost 15% of the total education budget from 9.2% in 2005.
With the sector expansion having thus been achieved, efforts are now focusing on quality improvement.
Two particular policies are the specialization of higher education, and industry-academy cooperation.
Specialization of higher education is a strategy that allows the higher education sector to respond
to challenges that the country is currently facing, such as the oversupply of graduates in a specific area,
or skills mismatches.
The three pillars of specialization are research, teaching, and technical education.
The Korean government has implemented diverse funding projects, tailored to the needs of each university
and their specific areas such asthe Brain Korea 21 project (BK21), the Advancement of College Education
project (ACE), and the Leaders in Industry-university Cooperation project (LINC).
An example of the major accomplishments of those funding projects is the drastic
increase in research papers published in international journals after implementing the
Brain Korea 21 project.
The Industry-Academy Cooperation policy is also an important policy initiative for the innovation
of higher education in Korea. Such cooperation in Korea matches the educational and
research activities of universities to the demands of industry. It does this through the
development and transfer oftechnology special programs for industry-academy cooperation
curricular reforms the provision of facilities for laboratory education and experiments and
institutional reforms to facilitate the cooperation.
One representative government-funded project to promote cooperation between industry
and academiain Korea is the Leaders in Industry-university Cooperation project, which aims
to establish a growth system for regional universities and industries and expand and reorganize
universities’ Industry-Academy Cooperation system. The governmental R&D expenditure
for the higher education sector andthe intellectual property rights and technology
commercialization by higher education institutions has also rapidly increased.
Given those accomplishments, Industry-Academy Cooperation is judged a successful policy
that stimulates the development and open innovation of the higher education sectorin Korea.
In sum, the analysis of Korea’s experiences and continuous endeavors to help its students
lead happy and productive lives, and contribute to building a better nation would provide insights
and meaningful lessons to the countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, too.
LAC countries are also invited to share their educational experiences with Korea, given their own
strengths in education, including the high satisfaction with school that students in
LAC countries report.
This type of knowledge sharing between Korea and the LAC countries would contribute to improve
the education systems of both sides, which ultimately supports them to raise their students to be
happier and more capable adults.
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