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jaganath69
Joined: 17 Jul 2003
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 Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2006 2:46 am Post subject: Korean Universities |
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| Most appear to aspire to a top 100 ranking in those less than useful guides to the world's best that come out periodically. However, browsing the pages of a few of the major ones here, especially faculty sections, I could find nary but a few overseas lecturers amongst them. OK, I realise with the main method of instruction being Korean there is a limit here, but wouldn't a step in the right direction be hiring profs from outside the peninsula? Wouldn't drawing on the best in the world be the obvious way to world-class status? And on a side note, how many of you know of lecturers teaching in departments other than English at Korean Universities? Discuss. |
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SuperHero
Joined: 10 Dec 2003
Location: Superhero Hideout
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| Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2006 3:04 am Post subject: |
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| My university has foriegn lecturers in several departments across campus. |
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jaganath69
Joined: 17 Jul 2003
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| Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2006 3:59 am Post subject: |
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| SuperHero wrote: |
| My university has foriegn lecturers in several departments across campus. |
All with PhDs and publications in their respective areas? If its not too much to ask, in which disciplines do they teach? Are they tenured? Is yours a major university? |
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SuperHero
Joined: 10 Dec 2003
Location: Superhero Hideout
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| Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2006 4:03 am Post subject: |
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| jaganath69 wrote: |
| SuperHero wrote: |
| My university has foriegn lecturers in several departments across campus. |
All with PhDs and publications in their respective areas? If its not too much to ask, in which disciplines do they teach? Are they tenured? Is yours a major university? |
I don't personally know these instructors so I cannot comment on their qualifications/publications. Yes I work at a top 5 university. |
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Woland
Joined: 10 May 2006
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2006 4:50 am Post subject: |
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I can back up SuperHero on this; I work at the same uni, different department. I know three foreign professors (besides myself and the two colleagues in my program). One I don't know well, but can say he does have a PhD. Two, including one I know better, are in the performing arts. They don't have PhDs but do have the appropriate credential for their positions at a university and seem well respected by peers and students. One is higly in demand internationally for his skills.
I have a PhD and publications in the field. A book chapter is coming out in a few months. |
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jaganath69
Joined: 17 Jul 2003
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| Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2006 5:31 am Post subject: |
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| Cool, cheers, but how wide spread is this? |
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Juregen
Joined: 30 May 2006
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| Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2006 5:43 am Post subject: Re: Korean Universities |
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| jaganath69 wrote: |
| Most appear to aspire to a top 100 ranking in those less than useful guides to the world's best that come out periodically. However, browsing the pages of a few of the major ones here, especially faculty sections, I could find nary but a few overseas lecturers amongst them. OK, I realise with the main method of instruction being Korean there is a limit here, but wouldn't a step in the right direction be hiring profs from outside the peninsula? Wouldn't drawing on the best in the world be the obvious way to world-class status? And on a side note, how many of you know of lecturers teaching in departments other than English at Korean Universities? Discuss. |
My MBA has about 5 Foreign Professors with experience in Europe and America.
They do not teach english  . |
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crazylemongirl
Joined: 23 Mar 2003
Location: almost there...
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| Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2006 5:56 am Post subject: |
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| I've had foreign lecturers studying in my Korean class at SNU, so yes they are there. |
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Homer
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| Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2006 7:44 am Post subject: |
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My university also has lecturers in many fields. Other universties in Korea have some as well.
To answer your Q jags
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| All with PhDs and publications in their respective areas? If its not too much to ask, in which disciplines do they teach? Are they tenured? Is yours a major university? |
1- No, not all with PhDs as they are lecturers...not tenure track professors (big difference).
2- Publications: most of them do.
3- Disciplines: Political Science, History, Communication, Marketing, Translation, Economics and so on.
4- They are lecturers not professors hence not tenure....
5- Define major university....
Do you mean only the national universties like SNU and PNU or do you include Yonsei and Koryo?
Some "minor" universities do have foreign lecturers.
Those just teach classes and do research on their own. This is completely different from tenure track professors and the two should not be confused in any way. |
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jaganath69
Joined: 17 Jul 2003
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| Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2006 8:31 am Post subject: |
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| Homer wrote: |
My university also has lecturers in many fields. Other universties in Korea have some as well.
To answer your Q jags
| Quote: |
| All with PhDs and publications in their respective areas? If its not too much to ask, in which disciplines do they teach? Are they tenured? Is yours a major university? |
1- No, not all with PhDs as they are lecturers...not tenure track professors (big difference).
2- Publications: most of them do.
3- Disciplines: Political Science, History, Communication, Marketing, Translation, Economics and so on.
4- They are lecturers not professors hence not tenure....
5- Define major university....
Do you mean only the national universties like SNU and PNU or do you include Yonsei and Koryo?
Some "minor" universities do have foreign lecturers.
Those just teach classes and do research on their own. This is completely different from tenure track professors and the two should not be confused in any way. |
Cheers for clearing that up, homer et al. I'm still a bit clueless as to the overall university structure here, but by major I guess I would include the top 25 or so institutions in the country (that's a nice arbitrary figure, ain't it?). I'm still intruiged as to the lack of tenure though and I know from reading about the academic industry in places like Italy that a closed shop is run, keeping foreign competition out.
What I was trying to get at here is the fact that places I browsed, KU, SNU, Yeonsei (and I'll be the first to admit its a poor sample, not well researched) seemed to have an entirely Korean Professorial staff. That being the case, you have KU whose slogan is Global Pride, which kind of indicates a desire to be up there amongst the best (although in Konglish fashion it could indicate anything). Why is it then that more top of the line academics aren't being sought out and offered tenure? To back this up, I was going through Yeonsei's job list a while back and all the positions for foreign staff explicitly stated non-tenure. I dunno, maybe I am whistling in the dark, but it would seem to me that the best way to raise standards in Korean Unis (which are from my reading and casual observation below par) would be to start looking for world-class staff. This would also go a way to stemming the brain drain this country suffers. Thoughts? |
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Homer
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| Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2006 8:50 am Post subject: |
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| Why is it then that more top of the line academics aren't being sought out and offered tenure? |
This can be explained (or at least wondered about...) in many ways.
a) Could be they are trying to get these top of the line academics but that they do not have the financial means to attract them yet.
b) Could be the restrictions on tenure, which like in many countires, tend to be very restrictive towards outsiders.
There are other possible explanations and I do not want to muddle the issue further!
| Quote: |
| I dunno, maybe I am whistling in the dark, but it would seem to me that the best way to raise standards in Korean Unis (which are from my reading and casual observation below par) would be to start looking for world-class staff. This would also go a way to stemming the brain drain this country suffers. Thoughts? |
Good observation Jags.
It could be a solution but perhaps they have to juggle protecting the local job market for Korean professors who do their studies abroad and comeback....from an employment standpoint that would make sense. The language issue also comes into play and will continue to do so until Korean university students can take University classes in English and follow the material being taught and that is a a challenge!
Since I have been here I noticed the bar being raised in several universties and a slow change taking place. I suspect it will continue to change slowly.
As for the brain drain...it is a a temporary problem and a permanent one depending on the fields of work. Many profs, docs and lawyers do their grad degrees abroad but come back to Korea. Some do not and hence a brain drain.
There are similar problems in Canada in certain fields namely in medecine where certain provinces are losing doctors left and right and centre soon after graduation as they move to the US or to the higher paying provinces (Ontario for example). Education suffers from this too as many major canadian universities are finding it increasingly tough to retain their graduates or to attract top flight academics....
You could make a similar case for qualified teachers coming out to asia to teach!
I recently heard from my former school principal (we kept in touch) that his schoolboard is losing many teachers to other locales (certain States in the US and Asia).
This might just be the unexpected result of ultra-globalisation...but I just hijacked your thread sorry Jags! |
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insamjunkie
Joined: 04 Oct 2006
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| Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2006 4:12 pm Post subject: |
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Last edited by insamjunkie on Fri Jan 05, 2007 3:35 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Homer
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| Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2006 5:34 pm Post subject: |
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| It might make sense in a few fields, but an outright an on all departments seems excessive. |
Sounds more to me like job market protection....not an uncommon practice in many countries. It does have drawbacks however as it means universties may lose out on qualified professors. |
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jaganath69
Joined: 17 Jul 2003
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| Posted: Wed Nov 08, 2006 4:01 am Post subject: |
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OK, doing some real digging today, I downloaded myself the Top 200 Universities article from The Times Higher Education supplament. I know not to place a great deal of stock in these things, but it remains one of the few ways to effectively rank institutions of higher learning.
Two of the criteria are 'International Faculty' and 'International students'. For the sake of what I have been loosely arguing here, the former is particularly relevant. The reasoning being this criteria is given in the methodological notes of the guide.
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| 5 per cent is awarded on the basis of the percentage of overseas staff each university has, and a further 5 per cent for its percentage of overseas students. This measure is intended to help mobile staff and students by giving them an impression of how international a university may be. |
Three Korean Universities feature in the publication; Seoul National at 63, Korea University at 150 and KAIST at 198. They record scores in the relevant category of 2, 5 and 14, all out of a possible 100. For a random sampling I'll give the rankings in that category for the institutes immediately above and below. For SNU, NUS Singapore scores 77 and Bristol University 37. For KU, Free University of Berlin scores 27 and Texas A&M a 12. For KAIST, University of California Irvine gets a 2, University of Paris Sorbonne a 6.
OK, these figures by no means indicate a causality between number of overseas academics and greatness, top 10 entrants like Berkley and Stanford score low on the table too. However, one must wonder if this benchmark is indeed one way to further some of the stated goals (think KU's 'Global Pride') of acheiving international success for Korean higher learning institutes. |
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Homer
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| Posted: Wed Nov 08, 2006 4:44 am Post subject: |
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Interesting take there Jags.
I do think resctricting access to tenure for foreign professors might be holding back some universities. Then again these same universities have to balance this with the need to protect local professors and their access to jobs.
There is also the question of the ability of students to folow university level classes in English (unless the Foreign professor speaks fluent Korean).
It is a tightrope of sorts.
Last edited by Homer on Wed Nov 08, 2006 5:01 am; edited 1 time in total |
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