[KS] Which degrees are worth pursuing?

[Horace H. Underwood]

Dear Potential Colleagues:

I think that any plan to pursue a doctoral degree in Korea is problematic,
and if you have ANY CHOICE AT ALL it is not the place I would recommend.
While Korean education is in turmoil at all levels, doctoral education is
probably the weakest.

Last year news items noted that Seoul National University was having trouble
filling its doctoral quota in many departments, with SNU professors
demanding that goverment "do something."  It has been the common surprise of
American Fulbright professors teaching in Korea, who typically teach one
undergraduate and one graduate course in the same department, to discover
that the undergraduate students are better, much better - because the best
undergraduates leave Korea and do their graduate work overseas, and those
left to fill the graduate classes are not the best students.  Finally, at
Yonsei University, 87% of the tenured faculty have their Ph.D.s from
overseas, and (outside the Korean literature department) hardly anyone
without an overseas Ph.D. has been hired in the last 20 years, even
professors whose field is Korean politics.

Korea is a "high-context" society, and at least as long as I have been a
professor in Korea (since 1971), the top Korean universities have been
sending the following messages to their potential Ph.D. students:

        1) You will have no decent library or facilities to work with here.
        2) You will get very little financial aid.
        3) You will work with poorly qualified fellow students.
	  4) The faculty will spend little time mentoring you.
        5) And, when you finish, we will not hire you.

Perhaps items 1-5 are only true in the department I know intimately, the
English department at Yonsei -- but I doubt it.  Koreans themselves
generally do not respect the Ph.D.s given by their own universities, so even
if the degree program were to turn out to be excellent, your degree would
get all the respect of Rodney Dangerfield.  While master's level work in
Korea can be challening and rewarding, I cannot recommend your doing a Ph.D.
here.

Horace H. Underwood
Executive Director
Fulbright, Korea


-----Original Message-----
From: Koreanstudies-bounces at koreaweb.ws
[mailto:Koreanstudies-bounces at koreaweb.ws]On Behalf Of Scott
Sent: Monday, September 29, 2003 5:02 PM
To: Korean Studies Discussion List
Subject: Re: [KS] Which degrees are worth pursuing?


     Thank you for raising this question - I'm in a similar boat as the
author and look forward to hearing the opinion of others on this topic.
     Having just graduated a few weeks ago from SNU with an MA in Korean
Studies I've been struggling recently about whether I should return to the
U.S., or stay here in Korea, to pursue my PhD. As my focus is US-Korean
relations, specifically North Korean - U.S. relations, it seems natural to
limit my choices to the U.S. or Korea (Kim Il-sung University???) but I
would really like some feedback on the trade-offs involved in studying here
in Seoul versus back in the States.
     Thank you in advance for any advice you may have.

Scott Fisher
English Instructor
Graduate School of Translation and Interpretation
Ewha Womans University

--- Kevin Shepard <kevin_shepard at yahoo.com> wrote:
While working in a Korean university for the past three years, I have heard
many comparisons made between the quality and legitimacy of higher education
in Korea and in the West.  I wish to pursue a PhD in N.K. policy,  or more
generally in Korean politics but am hesitant as where I should study.  While
I understand that generally, degrees from the States are more widely
recognized, would research into Korean policy be sufficient justification
for researching at a Korean school?
I am asking for input from those of you working in the field now... how do
you and your peers feel about degrees from Korean schools as compared to
those from the US (I am American)?  The general atmosphere here is that (for
studies in Korea) usually only degrees from the Seoul elite schools are
worth pursuing , with the exception of Korean politics, when Kyungnam
University's North Korean Studies graduate school seems to be respected.
Are these programs worth investigating?  Any advice will be greatly
appreciated.

Kevin Shepard
Lecturer of English Conversation
Kyungnam University, Department of International Studies
449 Wolyoung-Dong, Masan, Kyungnam 631-701
South Korea
FAX: 82-55-249-2939 C.P: 011-9208-1329