Korean Higher Education Analysis And Thinking

South Korea is world-known in the aspect of higher education expansion. It is also one of the most eye-catching countries in the world regarding economic growth. In both aspects, South Korea is undoubtedly the best example of developing country which over-passed developed countries in a short period of time.The government of South Korea adheres to the strategy of closefitting higher education system to social economic development all along. The government has acted as a demander to activate higher education to produce human capital and scientific technology, whereas the higher ecuation system has served as a supplier of human resources to work for the development of national economy. Quality workers who benefited from higher education played a significant role in developing South Korea from an agricultural country to an industrialized one.To meet the aim of lifting national competitive power worldwide, the South Korean government is making efforts to transit the higher education orientation from massification to cultivation of quality human resources. The new concern is to adapt higher education to the knowledge-based society which is marked with well-being, informatization, opening and globalization, so as to further drive both individual development and social economic development in the new era.Although rapid quantitative growth of higher education in the past decades has benefited both the country and the people in South Korea, it has exerted some negative side-effects known as"post-massification problems". To find solutions and to build a new 21-century higher education system, the South Korean government launched a new round of reform, expecting to improve the academic quality and competitiveness of higher education by pushing the universities to pursue academic autonomy, functional diversity and specialization, as well as globalization and life-long education.Many studies have been conducted to conclude the achievements of South...