Korean Job Discussion Forums

[TheUrbanMyth]

Apologies if this has been posted elsewhere but I ran a search for "crackdown" and couldn't find it)


According to the Korean Times today a crackdown is going to start on people with fake degrees. The Seoul agencies plan to investigate several thousand hakwons in the Seoul area and lay charges against anyone with a fake degree. Any hakwon OWNERS who hired these people will also be charged (although it didn't specify knowingly or not). Other areas will be targeted as well.

Great news!!! Illegal teachers (Western AND Korean) plus hakwon directors getting their just deserts?

Sounds almost too good to be true. Well it's been what many people on this board have been asking for (at least for the hakwon owners)
The next few months should be interesting.....to say the least.

[FistFace]

Sounds like they're gearing-up for more bribe money to me.

But yeah, it's good news.

Now if they would only go after the hundreds of Korean professors we all know are out there teaching with fake degrees. Remember, they found 30 in Incheon alone last year, and it proved so shocking that it was removed from the papers within a day, and covered-up faster than you can say Kimchi.

They're going after some high-profile Korean hagwon teachers, but that's too easy (the gov't hates hagwons).

I want to see some more Korean profs get busted.

[JongnoGuru]

How utterly bribe-tastic!

[Col.Brandon]

This is assuming they don't make a hash of it. Call me cynical, but they haven't exactly been renowned for their attention to detail and follow-through so far.

Case in point: Many of us have already been required to front up at the immigration office (at great personal inconvenience) to have our qualifications "verified". I know for a fact that people with fake degrees breezed through that process; I'll believe the effectiveness of this new crackdown when I see it.

By the way, I wonder if they've managed to close down all the brothels yet?

[TheUrbanMyth]

[I-am-me]

How will they know If a degree is fake? Will they call the university? It's hard enough for me to call my universtiy without being put on hold then asked for all kinds of information before they give me any info. Aside from that, university personnel dont speak korean and I doubt anyone doing the calling will be able to be understood.

[FistFace]

[I-am-me]

..I wonder how many will be calling in sick when school starts?

[bellum99]

I bet many in Universities around Korea are shaking their boots. I think they have just found the tip of the iceberg and there are a lot of fake Korean professors running around. I actually hope there are and that they get caught. Lying in Korea is a cultural heritage..rewarded and seldom punished.

[wylies99]

Fake diplomas? IN Korea? What else is new, EH?

[lastat06513]

Ok....

If the market does dry up and alot of the known backpackers are sent packing, will this open foreign teachers to the right to demand more money and better conditions?

I would like people to do a search and try to find a thread I recently wrote on the subject....
http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=95194&highlight=

I still get the impression that the Hakwon owners would rather leave the business and start some other enterprise rather than cater to a bunch of "whining foreign wimps"......as some Hakwon owners have said about teachers and that if some teachers don't like the pay and conditions, "They can simply leave because there are hundreds of applicants trying for the same position...."

Yeah.....it is a blessing that the industry is cleaning up its act...but I highly doubt things will get better...at least anytime soon......

[indytrucks]

[The_Conservative]

[Typhoon]

I am pretty sure no universities are "shaking in their boots" or are too afraid of fake degrees. From what I've read most universities are only checking people hired for the next semester. It seems that no universities have signalled their intent to start checking the degrees of current professors/lecturers. I asked my university what they intended to do. The told me they would do nothing. They said that if the government comes checking they can do the work. It is a good thing for the teachers at my school that they have this attitude because I know of at least one teacher that has an illegal degree.

[Sophocles]