01/02/2006 | Japan, Korea

Asian universities gear up for global competition

By: Tony Martin

KOREA

One of these is President of Korea University, Dr Yoon-Dae Euh. Determined to change the perception of his university from that of a �frog in a well�, the word �Minjok� (national) has been dropped from its title and Korea University has embarked upon a �Global KU Project� to stamp the word �international� on to its image.

Speaking to a recent conference on the theme of �Global Competitiveness of Korean Universities�, Dr Euh pointed out: �The US has poured 80% of its R&D budgets into universities since the late 1950�s. The growth engine of the US is its university system. Contrarily, Japan fell down as it was negligent of the significance of investing in universities. However, Japan kick started it back up with investments into the university system 5 years ago. By setting aside 50 trillion won for development of universities, Japan already has a renewed look on their university system.�

Turning rhetoric into action, Korea University has started to put serious emphasis on classes taught in foreign languages. The proportion of courses taught in English will rise to more than 30% in 2005 and students must take at least 5 courses taught in English to be able to graduate. Also, it will be mandatory for Korean students majoring in a foreign language to go to the respective country to learn the language.

Dae-Hyun Lee, a student in the Department of Human Studies, says �There have been drastic changes on campus compared to the days of 'Minjok Korea University' where demonstrations against an American fast food chain restaurant took place with chants of �Go away, American capitalists!�. He added, �I don�t know how our seniors would feel about this, however, the majority of students is welcoming such changes and is taking them very positively.�

Korea University is establishing an �International Summer Campus,� where a large number of students from inside and outside Korea will participate. Around 30 professors from Yale, Stanford and Michigan University in the U.S. and the same number from Korean Universities will be lecturing in English. Already 135 universities from 26 countries have made exchange programs with Korea University and it now has a plan to combine with universities in the U.S., England, Australia, China, Japan, Canada, Germany and elsewhere to set up a �Global Campus.�

�Globalisation, Competition, Freedom� is Dr. Euh�s maxim for the university. He says,�KU's Global Project is totally different from the exchange programs that simply bring foreign professors and students.� He adds, "We are applying a new paradigm as a way to enable students to achieve an international perception and to experience foreign cultures quickly."

Korea University is not the only institution in Korea to make this type of move to internationalisation. Seoul National, Sogang University, Yonsei, Pohang, Hanku, Ewha Women�s, Sung Kyun Kwan are some of the many that are introducing similar activity and whose forward thinking administrators and academics are travelling extensively to worldwide conferences and exhibitions to generate new linkages and recruit students.

MALAYSIA

Heading south to tropical Malaysia and Singapore, these two neighbouring countries are vying with each other and with Thailand to be the education hub of South East Asia and in doing so are creating many new opportunities for the region's graduates to acquire masters and PhD qualifications.While Singapore may be seen as the faster mover of the two, and ahead in sophistication, Malaysia is astutely capitalising on its intrinsic assets and education tradition. There are currently 11 public and 14 private universities in Malaysia plus nearly 700 private colleges. Despite the strong pressure from government to take pride in the national language, Bahasa Melayu, postgraduate programs are taught predominantly in English, and Arabic is also widely used. Of Malaysia�s 36,000 foreign students, 4,000 are estimated to be studying at postgraduate level.