Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Caro wack]

http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2009/05/08/2009050800679.html


An absolute waste of brick, mortar, and lunch trays.

[bobbybigfoot]

At one time, higher education was a noble endeavor. Now, it's done merely to feed the economic machine. Education is a business. A big one.

Korea is not alone in this sin. It is a widespread plague.

[ytuque]

[PRagic]

My dissertation chair gave me one solid piece of advice: publish! For professors at least, publishing consistently in good journals provides increased career security. You can have loads of publications in unrecognized or unrated journals, but they won't help you down the line when you're in a job hunt.

Participation in program development and the types of classes (translated as marketability of classes!) you teach are also important, of course, but the networking that takes place at conferences and through editorial boards, in addition to research over time are what generate security.

I think it's laughable that they're entertaining the idea of compensating university founders. Universities here, as elsewhere, have been viewed as cash cows, and the profits are often poured into non-university related business activities, including affiliated primary and secondary schools, institutes chains, construction companies, hotels, or service organizations. They rolled the dice, they lost.

[legalquestions]

Pragic,

Which are the "good" journals in your opinion?

[mises]

The OP and the article posted aren't all that related:

OP:

[cdninkorea]

If it's a private university, and Korea is supposed to be a capitalist country, the government shouldn't have the authority to shut them down. As for students and their parents being victims, well, that's why you should investigate before you hand over your money.

[Kwangjuchicken]

I once taught at a private university that had to literally beg for students.

Now I teach at a private university that only (depending on major) accepts 5 to 10% of the applicants.

The main difference is where I am now the professors truley care about the students and as such meet the needs these student have to be a success in school and after graduation. The other uniuversity did not do that.

Another difference is at the other university the students were basically in charge. The classrooms were always full of smoke because the students smoke in the halls. The halls are also just giant ashtrays and pools of spit. I even saw a Senior English major get up in a class being taught by the chair, go into the hall, smoke, spit, use the floor as an ashtray (while taking on his cell phone) then goes back into class. The prof. never said a word. And I got into troubke for trying to stop such behavior. And when High School students visited in groups to help them to decide what university they would go to, seeing this was a shock to them and most would not want to go there. However, the ones who are bad students who want to act like that and still pass their classes (we were told to never fail a student even if 0% attendane and never took a test, etc).

This behavior would never be permitted at my current university. And, if students earn an "F", that is what they get.

[Caro wack]

Mises,

In reading parliance, I believe this is called
cause/effect. There is more going on here than
simply demographics. Many of these aren't really
schools, more like "enterprises." Some of the
"schools" are younger than their students. The staff
there masquerading as teachers are a joke. Closing these
places is an example of natural selection.

CW

[bluelake]

[cubanlord]

[Hyeon Een]

[PRagic]

Thanks for taking that one, Cubanlord. Didn't know there was only ONE TESL journal ranked. Whew. There are, however, a LOT of education and education research journals that publish across the education diciplines. You guys would know better than me. Good topic for those looking to publish.

[bassexpander]

Our private university is doing well. We're expanding again, and hiring 2 (possibly more) foreign teachers this summer. When I came here, there were 3 other waygooks. There are at least 10 now, if memory serves.

Pay is certainly not the highest in Seoul, but the staff is friendly (Korean and foreign). We all get along pretty well. We aren't bothered by meetings every week (maybe 1 time in a month, or a few near the beginning/end of a semester).

[cubanlord]