Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Real Reality]

Students Cite Professors for Negligence
.... "SNU has some professors who come to school only once a week".... According to the survey, students said that almost all of their classes have been canceled at least once, and.... no make-up classes.

Last year, 103 educators (mostly professors) ran for the 17th general election,... Of the 1,282 committees of 88 government commissions, 40%, or 508, were professors at the same time. Moreover, of the SNU professors, more than 200 are involved in venture businesses, 50 of whom are chief directors. A total of 50 professors are also working as outside directors of companies. In addition, 40 professors have stayed in foreign countries longer than the foreign travel regulations of school allow them to during the semester (20 days).
by Jae-Myoung and Lee Se-Jin Jung, Donga.com (November 29, 2005)
http://english.donga.com/srv/service.php3?biid=2005112907518

"SNU has some professors who come to school only once a week"....
How many of them are foreign professors?

How many foreign professors have venture businesses in Korea?
How many foreign professors are directors at companies in Korea?
How many foreign professors stay more than 20 days outside of Korea during the semester?

[BigBlackEquus]

This final paragraph quote sums it up nicely:

'Things that would never be tolerated at universities in developed countries, such as lecture cancellations without prior notice or loose lectures, are being openly practiced in Korea�s so-called prestigious schools.'


Korean universities. The hagwons of world post high school education.

Very sad. Kind of puts the worth of university work here in perspective, doesn't it?

[antoniothegreat]

strange....
many Koreans have accused foreigners of coming to korea to teach because they are lazy, unqualified, and dont want to work.
it appears many koreans teach in korea because they are lazy, unqualified, and dont want to work...

[Ya-ta Boy]

I have to wonder if the students who are complaining are the same ones who hand in xeroxes of encyclopedia pages for a term paper.

[Hollywoodaction]

[Ya-ta Boy]

[Real Reality]

Stop corruption in academia
The methods used to misuse funds are diverse. The funds most commonly exploited are those paid to graduate students for their labor. Professors use various excuses to withhold the money from them, such as saying that they need it to rent a venue for a seminar. They also inflate labor costs by including students who didn't take part in a project, then appropriate the balance for their personal use. Swindling meager research subsidies from students, who depend on these professors for recommendations for employment, is not what an educator should be doing.
Editorial, JoongAng Daily (April 27, 2005)
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/200504/27/200504272153216879900090109011.html

A professor of engineering said it was common for there to be up to ten co-authors on a paper, most of whom have had nothing to do with it.... professor Kang at "D" University aged more than 50, concluded a secret agreement with a newly appointed professor to have his name added to papers in exchange for hiring him as opposed to other candidates. Last year, Professor Han at "E" University who had failed to be promoted managed to do so after his name was appended to his student's paper.
by Choi Won-seok, Chosun Ilbo (April 25, 2002)
http://www.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200204/200204251020.html

[mishlert]

When I was working at a University in Budapest I was paid a low amount, but my apartment, and everything except phone was paid. I thought that the foreigners were paid a lower salary, but soon found out that it was the same for everyone. So, due to the low salaries, 90% of the Hungarians teaching there were buisness owners, entrepreneurs, etc. in the field of what they were teaching. The difference,though, is that they showed up for work, and rarely cancelled classes.

On the topic of plagorizing. When I was attending university in North America, and Europe, they had a very strict policy on the matter:
If you were caught plagorizing, you not only failed the course, you were expelled.
Now, if Korean universities started a policy like that, the cases would go down dramatically. Ah, to dream.

[Hollywoodaction]

Yes, it would cause quite a stir. But, I doubt it will happen anytime soon. I have yet to see a Korean professor who requires his or her students to quote references properly, or even at all for that matter.

[anyway]

My former boss, the head (and I do mean head) of a language institute at a national university in Jinju as well as a political science professor, had one of the part-time college student workers (who was particularly good in English) spend most or all of his time upstairs in the computer lab translating a rather old book on the Holocaust into Korean. I always wondered if the boss was going to claim credit for translating it or writing it himself.

This is the same guy who had painted a picture (9 feet long by 5 feet tall) of a whorehouse and then hung it on the wall of his office. Or at least he told me he had painted it himself.

In the end, he demoted me from a certain project there. The reason he gave me...wait for it...being unprofessional.

[Kyrei]

My favourite plagiarism story:

I spend at least two weeks on referencing (biliographic) and citations in order to avoid plagiarism charges. We go over direct VS indirect quotes etc. as supporting evidence for papers. Then I give them the first (mid-term) assignment which is a comparison-contrast of two countries. As this is the first assignment of this type I am more concerned with form so I tell them what sites to use on-line (eg. World Factbook, etc.). One student copies several paragraphs about the countries from site I suggested and hands it in as his paper. I cross it out and give him a zero for plagiarisnm. Not even creative plagiarism at that (links and so on still visible in text). No attempt at references or citations. He complains to the Dean of Academic Affairs and the Dean asks me to give him another chance. I comply and what does the punk-@$$ kid do? He hands in the exact same paper with (World Factbook, 2005) at the very end of the essay. Slapped an 'F' on that baby and let it go. He has since dropped the class.