Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Mashimaro]

Found this link on the marmot's blog
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200503/200503290024.html

Hard to see the rest of the world taking korea seriously when koreans themselves don't feel their own country is worth learning about.

Apparently Oxford University are planning on ceasing their korean studies program in 2007 unless someone will kick in the cash to prop it up (completely understandable as unis of course need to be financially viable)

All this arguing over dokdo and japanese history textbooks and they won't support a program to teach people the korean side of these events.

Yet another case of korean 'logic'

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U.K.'s Korean Studies Dying for Lack of Support

Not long after a U.K. visit by Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, the country's oldest university Oxford has provisionally decided to shut down its Korean studies program, the latest in the slow death of such programs all across Britain. Critics point out that Japan aggressively supports Japanese studies abroad, enabling it to highlight its side of disputes such as the recent territorial spat over Korea's Dokdo Islets, while Korea has no such strategy.
Prof. James Lewis of the Department of Korean Studies of the Faculty of Oriental Studies at Oxford University said Tuesday the university recently decided to do away with regional studies programs that do not financially support themselves. He said financial trouble would likely force the university to drop Korean studies, which was clearly not bringing in the required financial support, from June 2007.

Lewis said Oxford's Korean studies program was founded in 1994 with the support of the Korean government's Korea Foundation and was currently surviving on the patronage of a businessman. He expressed concern that the program would be left high and dry if the businessman withdraws his sponsorship.

A spokesman from the Korean Students Association at Oxford said the group asked several institutions in Korea to help the university's Korean program but was told there was no budget. The spokesman said for this to happen the same year President Roh paid a state visit to the U.K. was harmful to the promotion of friendly ties between the two countries. Worse, he said it would narrow the room available to overseas specialists who could speak for Korea's position in disputes like Dokdo Islets row.

The University of Durham also decided to shut down its Korean studies program, and the University of Newcastle will soon decide whether to scrap its Korean studies, sparking fears of a domino effect. Some critics worry whether the government's recent announcement that it will strengthen overseas Korean research through the Academy of Korean Studies was only hot air.

In sharp contrast, none of the financially struggling British universities are shutting down their Japanese and Chinese programs. The Japanese government and corporations like Nissan have been pouring lavish funds into Oxford's Japanese program since the 1980s, and the university library even has a separate, 100,000-volume Japan section. As a result of Japanese support for the discipline, the British media is full of articles reflecting Japan's position in conflicts like the Dokdo row.

Lewis said Japanese governmental and corporate support for overseas Japanese research meant the world's elites commonly saw problems between Korea and Japan from Tokyo's point of view.

[taobenli]

Hmmm...this article is pretty one-sided. I have been following a discussion on the Korean Studies listserv on this topic which explains things a bit better. Yes, in an ideal world the Korean government would fund Korea Studies programs all over the world. But despite the article's assertion, Japan and China don't do this, either. The simple fact is that Japan and China studies programs have been around much longer and generally have more support from universities and communities. The situation at Oxford is that they didn't establish a clear agreement with the Korea Foundation when the program was established a few years ago. At most universities, area studies programs ARE largely funded by foreign governments for a few years, and the funds are matched by the university.

The truth is, Korean Studies programs at foreign universities are not funded by the government, but by the Korea Foundation, and they are stretched pretty thin. The government needs to remove restrictions so that KF can work with foreign governments better. And in the UK, it is especially difficult to keep Korean programs going because the interest isn't quite there- there are also not the Korean communities to support the programs as there at say, UCLA.

I think to say that Koreans in general are "cheap" is kind of a low blow. If you look at the University of Washington's Korea Studies program (my program), when a history position was going to be terminated for lack of funds, the Korean community contributed a great deal of money to ensure that this didn't happen.

http://koreaweb.ws/pipermail/koreanstudies_koreaweb.ws/2005-April/004709.html

[Cedar]

Thank you 'taobenli'! I didn't know you were on the listserve, too!

To say that it's the Korean gov'ts job to fund Korean studies programs is ridiculous. So, grants were given to start the program... does that mean that Oxford can sit on their butt and not try to keep it going on their own? If Oxford can't be bothered to try hard for the program, why should the Korea Foundation (not the gov't) be sending money there instead of to programs that are live and well and supported by their host universities as well???

[bobbyhanlon]

hm.. i went to oxford and i wasn't even aware of korean studies as a subject. i knew a lot of the members of korean society there, and i don't even think any of them were studying it. to be honest they probably just got rid of it because nobody wanted to take it. oxford does still offer japanology as a degree, and that's probably because there are enough people who are interested in it.
its a shame they are no longer offering korean studies, but maybe what the korean government should be doing is helping make korea more visible in the world, and making korean studies something people might want to study.

[Mashimaro]

[Cedar]

Why should powerhouse universities like Oxford need someone to 'prop up' their programs? The whole idea of a grant to get a program going is to help some institution meet initial costs, and by taking that initial grant and then NOT doing their own share to keep the program going, in my opinion Oxford was not being honorable.

[Mashimaro]

[Cedar]

No, I wouldn't keep an unprofitable business going. In this case, though the question should be "would you even start a business you weren't confident could earn money using someone else's money and giving them your word that you'd do a good job with their investment"? If Oxford wasn't serious about a good Korean Studies Program, they should have let that money go somewhere else from the get-go!

[Gord]

[Cedar]