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Korean Job Discussion Forums "The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Teachers from Around the World!"
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Real Reality
Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Location: Seoul
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Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2005 4:52 am Post subject: 15 Universities to Be Shut Down by 2007 |
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15 Universities to Be Shut Down by 2007
Fifteen of 50 national universities will be shut down through mergers and restructuring by 2007 with a 10 percent cut in their student quota. The Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development reported the plan Friday to President Roh Moo-hyun.
Education Minister Kim Jin-pyo said in the report that the ministry will set aside about 80 billion won ($80 million) for the university restructuring project this year. The ministry will also earmark 300 billion won for universities seeking mergers from next year. Among them, about 20 billion won will be given annually for universities actively pushing for integration for two to five years. National universities are also required to cut the student quota by 10 percent by 2007 and 15 percent by 2009.
The authority will also help about 10-15 private universities pushing the restructuring move with incentives such as tax reductions and administrative advantages along with 2 to 8 billion won in aid.
by Chung Ah-young, Korea Times (March 25, 2005)
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/200503/kt2005032516233253460.htm |
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chiaa
Joined: 23 Aug 2003
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Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2005 5:07 am Post subject: |
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Guess they are running out of factory workers. |
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Guri Guy

Joined: 07 Sep 2003 Location: Bamboo Island
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Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2005 7:08 am Post subject: |
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This is excellent news. With less universities and therefore less university graduates there will be much greater competition to get into university. Even more pressure on the little kiddies with them already going to a million hawgwans and cram schools. Wow, more suicides and more cheating on exams. What's next? Pregnant women going to hawgwans to give their little bundle of joy a headstart on all the other Koreans? Wonderful. Just wonderful. I really feel sorry for Koreans sometimes...
Last edited by Guri Guy on Fri Mar 25, 2005 7:32 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Deconstructor

Joined: 30 Dec 2003 Location: Canada
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Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2005 7:22 am Post subject: |
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Oh my God! How will Korean women find husbands?!!!
On the plus side, the fertility rate will drop. Korea is way too crowded. |
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coolsage
Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Location: The overcast afternoon of the soul
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Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2005 7:43 am Post subject: |
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Yes, I pity them all. But a university education has been much degraded in Korea. Yes, these children work their little butts off to enter a university, but once they enter the hallowed halls of academe, they are essentially empty shells, robbed of a real childhood, incapable of relating to the opposite gender, capable only of memorizing, unable to think for themselves, or to be creative. No wonder that those families who can afford it are heading off to western countries to bear their children there, not only to escape the future conscription of their sons, but also to get out from under the tyranny of phony 'rote' education. |
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inthewild
Joined: 28 Mar 2004 Location: Korea
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Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2005 7:47 am Post subject: |
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coolsage wrote: |
Yes, I pity them all. But a university education has been much degraded in Korea. Yes, these children work their little butts off to enter a university, but once they enter the hallowed halls of academe, they are essentially empty shells, robbed of a real childhood, incapable of relating to the opposite gender, capable only of memorizing, unable to think for themselves, or to be creative. No wonder that those families who can afford it are heading off to western countries to bear their children there, not only to escape the future conscription of their sons, but also to get out from under the tyranny of phony 'rote' education. |
True or not... God, that's a depressing way to look at it. |
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Deconstructor

Joined: 30 Dec 2003 Location: Canada
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Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2005 8:13 am Post subject: |
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coolsage wrote: |
Yes, I pity them all. But a university education has been much degraded in Korea. Yes, these children work their little butts off to enter a university, but once they enter the hallowed halls of academe, they are essentially empty shells, robbed of a real childhood, incapable of relating to the opposite gender, capable only of memorizing, unable to think for themselves, or to be creative. No wonder that those families who can afford it are heading off to western countries to bear their children there, not only to escape the future conscription of their sons, but also to get out from under the tyranny of phony 'rote' education. |
Yes. I have to agree. Universities in Korea are empty wastelands where not much takes place least of which education. Then what a waste it is to spend one's entire childhood preparing for that desert.
I felt truly sorry form my young students, (ages 13, 14) who would come to class (hogwan) first thing in the morning at 7 am for one hour before going to their regular school. In the evening they would be back at 7 pm for another hour. They'd be so tired, that concentration on anything was mission impossible. I knew how much these kids were suffering, so it had become my raison d'etre NOT to teach them anything. I'd turn the class into a relaxed conversation session, which put a few smiles on their faces. I would often take them out for a popingsoo under the guise of educational outing. This probably wouldn't have worked in a big city, but where I lived was a small town called Kung-jin, which meant that the town folk, especially my boss, were understanding and rarely turned down my requests.
I remember couple of my female students breaking into tears telling me that they had absolutely no lives and that there wasn't a single second in the week that they could call their own.
My job was to teach them the great art of laziness and that, to quote Steven Wright, "ambition is a poor excuse for laziness".  |
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coolsage
Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Location: The overcast afternoon of the soul
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Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2005 10:17 am Post subject: |
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Deconstructor wrote: |
coolsage wrote: |
Yes, I pity them all. But a university education has been much degraded in Korea. Yes, these children work their little butts off to enter a university, but once they enter the hallowed halls of academe, they are essentially empty shells, robbed of a real childhood, incapable of relating to the opposite gender, capable only of memorizing, unable to think for themselves, or to be creative. No wonder that those families who can afford it are heading off to western countries to bear their children there, not only to escape the future conscription of their sons, but also to get out from under the tyranny of phony 'rote' education. |
Yes. I have to agree. Universities in Korea are empty wastelands where not much takes place least of which education. Then what a waste it is to spend one's entire childhood preparing for that desert.
I felt truly sorry form my young students, (ages 13, 14) who would come to class (hogwan) first thing in the morning at 7 am for one hour before going to their regular school. In the evening they would be back at 7 pm for another hour. They'd be so tired, that concentration on anything was mission impossible. I knew how much these kids were suffering, so it had become my raison d'etre NOT to teach them anything. I'd turn the class into a relaxed conversation session, which put a few smiles on their faces. I would often take them out for a popingsoo under the guise of educational outing. This probably wouldn't have worked in a big city, but where I lived was a small town called Kung-jin, which meant that the town folk, especially my boss, were understanding and rarely turned down my requests.
I remember couple of my female students breaking into tears telling me that they had absolutely no lives and that there wasn't a single second in the week that they could call their own.
My job was to teach them the great art of laziness and that, to quote Steven Wright, "ambition is a poor excuse for laziness".  |
Decon, I think that you're on to something. Sounds like you're speaking in the past tense though. These kids need the freedom to just play, to socialize naturally, so that after five or more years of gender segregation they don't arrive at university with the social skills of twelve-year-olds. |
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Deconstructor

Joined: 30 Dec 2003 Location: Canada
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Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2005 11:02 am Post subject: |
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coolsage wrote: |
Decon, I think that you're on to something. Sounds like you're speaking in the past tense though. These kids need the freedom to just play, to socialize naturally, so that after five or more years of gender segregation they don't arrive at university with the social skills of twelve-year-olds. |
You're on to something yourself. These kids just need to be kids. Instead they're sometimes pushed to the brink of suicide. And for what?! The females are effectively pushed out of the work force at the age of 27 to get married, while the men toil until succumbing to a heart attack in the subway on the way home from work.
Is this career path upwardly mobile? I'd say it's downwardly mobile until all is left for them to do is pushing up daisies.
Now that's what I call success. |
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SuperHero

Joined: 10 Dec 2003 Location: Superhero Hideout
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Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2005 1:36 pm Post subject: |
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Deconstructor wrote: |
The females are effectively pushed out of the work force at the age of 27 to get married, |
Are you still living in the 90's? I don't know any women who are getting pushed out of the work force once they get married or even once they have kids.... |
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Deconstructor

Joined: 30 Dec 2003 Location: Canada
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Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2005 2:05 pm Post subject: |
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SuperHero wrote: |
Deconstructor wrote: |
The females are effectively pushed out of the work force at the age of 27 to get married, |
Are you still living in the 90's? I don't know any women who are getting pushed out of the work force once they get married or even once they have kids.... |
It's possible that I'm still living in the 90's. Though I doubt that things have changed so much so fast in a society like Korea. |
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peppermint

Joined: 13 May 2003 Location: traversing the minefields of caddishness.
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Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2005 2:46 pm Post subject: |
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SuperHero wrote: |
Deconstructor wrote: |
The females are effectively pushed out of the work force at the age of 27 to get married, |
Are you still living in the 90's? I don't know any women who are getting pushed out of the work force once they get married or even once they have kids.... |
I do. Two coworkers of mine got married to eachother over the winter and guess what? the woman was forced to resign. As well, one of the women in the administration office also left the school because she's expecting a baby- five months from now. |
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Deconstructor

Joined: 30 Dec 2003 Location: Canada
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Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2005 3:26 pm Post subject: |
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peppermint wrote: |
SuperHero wrote: |
Deconstructor wrote: |
The females are effectively pushed out of the work force at the age of 27 to get married, |
Are you still living in the 90's? I don't know any women who are getting pushed out of the work force once they get married or even once they have kids.... |
I do. Two coworkers of mine got married to eachother over the winter and guess what? the woman was forced to resign. As well, one of the women in the administration office also left the school because she's expecting a baby- five months from now. |
I knew things couldn't have changed that fast! Korea is still an archaic society. |
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Paji eh Wong

Joined: 03 Jun 2003
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Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2005 4:33 pm Post subject: |
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Quote: |
The authority will also help about 10-15 private universities pushing the restructuring move with incentives such as tax reductions and administrative advantages along with 2 to 8 billion won in aid.
However, universities that fail to meet the qualifications such as the required number of faculty, will be excluded from the incentives. |
So that's why I got hired.
Anybody have any details on this incentive program? |
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Hollywoodaction
Joined: 02 Jul 2004
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Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2005 4:54 pm Post subject: |
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I don't get it. Korean National universities are supposed to be relatively good. Maybe the government is folding under the pressure of private universities, many of which have trouble attracting students because there are too many of them, and too few students (the number of students wanting to attend university is projected to decline considerably until it plateaus in 2010.) |
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