[KS] IUC programs

[Afostercarter at aol.com]

Concerning sovereignty in these matters, as raised by Gari Ledyard: 

The opportunity to set up an IUC or similar in South 
Korea should be about to improve, at least in principle.

Under the WTO's Doha round, the ROK - like other countries -
is in process of offering selective opening of its service sectors
to foreign investment. This includes education.

As readers on the spot will know far better than I, this is all
the subject of much debate - and predictable resistance from
the education ministry and teachers' unions. There has been
quite a lot of press discussion, including in last week's
Far Eastern Economic Review:

http://www.feer.com/articles/2003/0304_17/p018region.html

For once, however, it seems not to be shaping up as a 
simple fortress Korea "them and us". With few if any of the
stakeholders - students, parents, teachers, educators - happy
with the present state of education in Korea, there seems to be
an emerging constituency for letting in foreign schools: as a
breath of fresh air, or chill wind of competition.

All this applies to education across the board. When the dust
settles, it seems that - at least at university level - foreign providers
will be free, or freer, to set up shop.

Whatever one feels about globalization in general, my hunch is
that this can only be good for education in South Korea. At all
events, it should make it easier to push for an IUC.

Happy Easter!
Aidan FC

AIDAN FOSTER-CARTER
Honorary Senior Research Fellow in Sociology & Modern Korea, Leeds University
17 Birklands Road, Shipley, West Yorkshire, BD18 3BY, UK
tel:    +44(0)  1274  588586        mobile:  +44(0)  7970  741307 
fax:    +44(0)  1274  773663        Email: afostercarter at aol.com    

__________

In a message dated 4/17/03 06:46:16 GMT Daylight Time, gkl1 at columbia.edu 
writes:


> Subj:[KS] IUC programs 
> Date:4/17/03 06:46:16 GMT Daylight Time
> From:<A HREF="mailto:gkl1 at columbia.edu">gkl1 at columbia.edu</A>
> Reply-to:<A HREF="mailto:Koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws">Koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws</A>
> To:<A HREF="mailto:Koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws">Koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws</A>
> Sent from the Internet 
> 
> 
>     Back in the 80s and early 90s I tried to talk up in Korea the
> Inter-University Committee (IUC) approach to graduate level special
> language programs in Korea, but found no one who seriously thought it
> could happen.  The fact is, there is a sovereignty problem there.  The
> Taibei and Tokyo/Kyoto centers are organized, funded, and run by
> committees of senior professors in the Chinese and Japanese programs in
> the U.S., with the approval and cooperation of their respective
> universities.  They decide what to teach and how, who to hire, who to
> fire, textbooks and syllabus issues, salaries, and everything else.  For
> some reason, in Japan and Taiwan you can do this without people feeling
> that their national honor is threatened.  When I explained the IUC concept
> to Korean officials and educators, I was universally told that any
> teaching program in Korea must be under the oversight of the Ministry of
> Education.  I'm not sure how that position is formulated legally, but
> believe me, it is formulated.  And obviously, no American IUC committee
> will accept any "outside" (in this case, inside!) authority over its
> academic program.  I was told, by people who were sympathetic to the IUC
> approach and aware of its success in China and Taiwan, that the only way
> to establish a program with the IUC advantages is to work in cooperation
> with an established Korean educational institution under MOE oversight.
> But it doesn't seem that American program directors are ready for that.
> But surely there must be some way to get this thing done.  Why should
> American graduate students in Chinese and Japanese studies be able to
> polish their language skills culturally rich, real Chinese and Japanese
> environments, but students in Korean studies not be able to do this?
> 
> Gari Ledyard
> 
> 

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