Commercial Recruitment Agents: Framing the Issues

The debate about the proper role of commercial study abroad agents, touched on in earlier posts, shows no sign of abating.  Liz Reisberg and Philip Altbach's piece in InsideHigherEd entitled "Agents and Recruiters:  The Futility of Pretending to Certify Virtue," received a quick response from Mitch Leventhal in the same publication.  Alan Ruby's Trends and Insights piece for NAFSA provides a very useful perspective on the debate.
Several key issues emerge from the debate about commercial recruitment agents, including the following.
First, there is the issue of whether or not commercial recruitment agencies are necessary to reach local audiences in many countries of the world where local languages and cultures differ from the U.S., as many proponents of agency-based recruitment claim. Alternatively, are their other options or business models?  For example, do new information technologies offer a means for more direct communication between schools in the United States  and their prospective students and parents around the world?
Second,  there is the central issue of how agents or consultants are remunerated for their services.   Commission-based recruitment has been a particular focus of criticism.
Third, there is the question of whether it is desirable, or for that matter possible to “weed out” bad practices by training and "accrediting" or "certifying" commercial recruitment agencies.
Fourth, the debate highlights the issues that center around the economic nature of education and who bears its costs. To what extent is education a public rather than a private good?
A fifth issue that always seems to be lurking in the background of these debates is the question of the role of national governments, or at least national-level strategies, in promoting international educational exchange.
The above topics may not exhaust the list, but they can represent a starting effort to frame the major issues. All of them, and perhaps others, need as much careful thought and examination in Asia as in North America.

"Smart Education" in Korea

The media are full of reports about the Korean government's plan to introduce "Smart Education."   As reported by The Joongang Ilbo,the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said it will invest 2.2 trillion won ($2 billion) in a “Smart Education” project over the next four years, which will digitize major parts of the country’s education system, including an adoption of digital text books.
“Korean students have ranked first in terms of digital literacy among developed nations according to the OECD-run Programme for International Student Assessment,” said an official from the Education Ministry. “That’s why Korean students, who are already fully prepared for digital society, need a paradigm shift in education.”
The ministry said digital books will be much cheaper than printed versions. Analysts say “smart education” will help isolated groups of students, including handicapped students.
“By grafting education onto state-of-the-art technology, the country’s education industry will be revitalized, while also creating jobs in the IT industry,” said an Education Ministry official.
Those who follow my Korea Information Society blog will know that I've long been interested in e-books. It is not surprising at all that the Korean government would move quickly to the use of tablets and readers in schools nationwide.   What is missing from all of the press coverage and the hype about "smart education" is any discussion of the content of education.   Yet it is precisely in the area of content and creativity that the Korean education system has been most widely criticized, both within and outside the country.

Korea's Declining College-Age Population

According to the Statistics Korea, as reported in The Korea Herald, South Korea's college-age population is projected to peak at 690,000 next year, plunging to 420,000 by 2025. The total headcount enrollment in higher education in Korea approaches 600,000. By 2018, the number of high school graduates will fall below the university enrollment figure. The overall trend is shown by the accompanying graphic (click to see a full size version)
According to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, eight of the nation’s 200 four-year universities failed to fill over 80 percent of seats this year. Most of them are religiously affiliated. Youngsan University of Son Studies in South Jeolla Province filled just 24 percent of seats, the lowest among the eight, followed by Tamna University in Jeju at 31.2 percent.

The ministry announced earlier this month that it will cut financial support for less competitive private schools which have been designated as “underperforming,” based on their credit ratings and their graduates’ rate of employment. Private institutions account for 90 percent of all colleges and universities in Korea.

The number of schools on the blacklist will rise from 23 to 50 next year, said Education Minister Lee Ju-ho in a meeting with the presidents of 31 public universities.

Even public schools have not been spared. “Of the total 31 public universities, those ranking in the bottom 15 percent in an evaluation will face a major restructuring, including a reduction in student enrollment,” Lee said.

Will Korea's Private Tutoring Increase with the End of Saturday Classes?

Earlier this month the Korean government announced that it would recommend schools adopt a shorter week starting in 2012, ending Saturday classes that have been a feature of the modern education system since the end of the Korean War in 1953. Most schools now hold classes on two Saturdays a month. As reported by Bloomberg, there is speculation that this change in policy will simply increase the amount that parents spend on private tutoring for their children.
“If private institutions expand Saturday classes, I’ll definitely send my son,” said Kim Hyeran, who pays $2,800 per month for out-of-school classes for her 13-year-old, including as much as 20 hours of math. The Kim family, like the Chungs, live in Seoul’s Gangnam district, renowned in Korea for its concentration of specialized schools and private academies.
South Korean parents spend about $220 per child every month on out-of-school classes, tutoring and online learning, according to government statistics.
The Bloomberg article noted that large education or home schooling companies like Daekyo, Woonjin ThinkBig and MegaStudy stood to gain from the government's policy change to end Saturday classes.

SNU Students End 28-day Sit-in Against Privatization Plan

For the past few weeks, news media here in Korea have been reporting on the 28-day sit-in by Seoul National University (SNU) student council members to protest the university's privatization plan.  As reported in The Joongang Daily,40 of 61 students voted to accept a tentative agreement between the council and the university.
Since the National Assembly passed a bill last December to privatize the university to boost the competitiveness and efficiency of the university, students have opposed it for fear that tuition will go up and only commercial studies will thrive on the campus. The SNU administrative office told them it will concentrate on attracting funds for the development of the school, instead of raising tuition fees.

Dongseo University Explores Sites for U.S. Campus

Here in Seoul, we've been having many interesting discussions about Korea's efforts to encourage U.S. and other international universities to establish campuses here.  It turns out that there are also developments involving Korean universities that hope to establish campuses in the U.S.   Dongseo University recently toured Norristown, Pennsylvania and met with local, state and federal government representatives while considering it as a possible location for a new campus on the east Coast of the U.S.  For details, read the article published in one of the local newspapers.

The Forthcoming Demographic Shift in South Korean education

A short article in the Chosun Ilbo provides a stark reminder of the major demographic shift that is impending in South Korea because of the nation's low birth rate. According to a research report, the number of primary school students will dwindle 17 percent, and that of secondary school students 30 percent by 2020.  It seems clear that these broad shifts will impact not only school enrollments in South Korea, but also the number of Korean students who go abroad to study.

The "Over Educated" in South Korea

An interesting article in The Korea Herald this week discussed how South Korea is grappling with the problem of "over education."  It begins with the poignant story of a 27-year old college graduate with a degree in French literature, who--failing to find a job in her field-- enrolls in a barista training program in hopes of finding employment with Starbucks or another coffee chain in Seoul.
According to a survey conducted by Statistics Korea last year, 93 percent of parents polled expected their children to finish a four-year university degree at least. Koreans proudly say that the well-educated labor force was the main driver of the country’s miraculous rise from the ashes of the Korean War.
But their passion for education has gone way overboard. The country of 48 million now has 347 colleges and universities and 3.3 million people enrolled in them. Eighty percent of high school graduates advanced to tertiary education. This means that one in every 14 Koreans is a university student.
According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development, 56 percent of Koreans aged 25-34 received higher education, which is the second highest rate among the OECD’s member countries, after Canada.
The problem, the article notes, is that the economy is creating not enough quality jobs for college graduates.

Stanford to Offer Optional Alumni Interviews for Freshman Applicants

The Stanford University News reports that the university will begin using optional alumni interviews as part of the admission process for freshman applicants.   Personal interviews with trained alumni will become an optional component of the freshman application process at Stanford, according to Richard Shaw, dean of undergraduate admission and financial aid.

"Applicants will meet with Stanford affiliates in their own hometowns, alumni interviewers will have the opportunity to share their knowledge of and passion for Stanford, and their interview reports will provide our admission officers with another layer of context in our holistic admission process," Shaw said.
For further details on the Stanford program, read the Stanford News article.  It strikes us at the ACAEE that personal interviews, conducted live via a video link or recorded for later review could serve as a very important part of the international admissions process for U.S. colleges and universities.
Comments on this post are encouraged.  Is your university using interviews in the international admissions process or do you know of others that are?

New Resources on U.S.-DPRK Educational Exchanges

As noted in a post on my Korea Information Society blog, there are some new, valuable resources for those interested in U.S.-DPRK educational exchanges. First, The Walter Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University earlier this year published a report entitled U.S.-DPRK Educational Exchanges: Assessment and Future Strategy. Fortunately, the Stanford volume can be downloaded in PDF format, so I encourage you to use the preceding hyperlink to do so and read it.
A second resource is the web site of The National Committee on North Korea. As noted in its mission statement, it "...advances, promotes and facilitates engagement between citizens of the United States and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. It works to reduce tensions and promote peace on the Korean Peninsula and improve the well being of the citizens of the DPRK. Through cooperation on concrete activities addressing specific problems, NCNK seeks to enhance broad-based understanding and mutual trust. NCNK supports transitions enabling the DPRK to become a full participant in the community of nations. The National Committee's principles of engagement focus on addressing urgent humanitarian needs, implementing long-term development, building sustained partnerships, fostering mutual understanding, and helping to avoid conflict on the Korean Peninsula."

Translation and Localization in Educational Exchange

The Joongang Ilbo English edition carried an article earlier this week entitled "A Gov't that's often lost in translation."  It documents the rather embarrassing discovery of translation errors in both the EU and KORUS FTA agreements.  The article noted that people in the translation industry say they weren’t surprised. Despite the importance of good translation for an economy so dependent on exports, the government doesn’t hire many, doesn’t compensate them well and believes that the language skills of its general civil servants are good enough to get the work done.

“The foreign service exam requires a minimum of 700 points in the TEPS test, so everyone at the Foreign Ministry is capable of translation,” said a Foreign Ministry human resources department official. “Over the past decade, about 300 civil servants were hired for their language skills, and they all work on translation.”
The accompanying graphic shows the number of translators currently employed at several major ministries (click on graphic to see full size version).
Notably, the graphic did not include figures for the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. Yet for Korea, as for all advanced industrialized nations, education is a big factor in international trade. Over the past half century, Korea imported more education than it exported, with large numbers of students going overseas to study. That pattern is likely to change in coming years, but the importance of translation and localization, a central part of the ACAEE's mission, will likely remain very high.

Commercial Recruitment Agents: Hobson's Re-Thinks its Strategy

Another interesting development in the debate over use of commercial student recruitment agents, as discussed in several earlier posts. (Coaching and More for Chinese Students, SUNY Announces New Recruitment Strategy )
The new development, as reported in The Chronicle of Higher Education, is that Hobson's has pulled out of international student recruitment, or at least in the narrow sense of offering recruitment services via commercial agents. Hobsons has shut down its international-counselor network, just two years after it began offering independent recruiting services to American colleges seeking to attract additional overseas students.
Jeremy Cooper, managing director of integrated-marketing solutions for Hobsons, called the decision "purely commercial."
But underlying the company's decision to shutter its recruitment services is the continuing debate over the ethics of using commission-based recruiters to attract foreign students.
Mr. Cooper said the debate around the use of paid overseas agents likely deterred some colleges from working with Hobsons or from contracting with recruiters abroad. "There's still a lot of noise about the ethical use of agents," he said. "While that discussion, that debate, continues, then there will be institutions that are hesitant to come on board."
The dispute over overseas agents has flared in recent weeks, particularly after the National Association for College Admission Counseling released a proposed policy revision that would bar its members from engaging in commission-based recruitment domestically or internationally. (The practice already is prohibited in the United States for students who receive federal financial aid.)
Those interested in these developments should read the full article in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Online Learning as a Double-edged Sword

The title of an article in the Joongang Daily this morning tells it all.   "Online Lessons Invade Schools" describes the disenchantment of some Korean parents at the growing use of online materials in elementary school classrooms.  The article begins as follows: When Mrs. Kim, 43, visited her fourth-grade daughter’s elementary school recently to bring her some school supplies, she was bewildered at what she saw. In most of the classrooms she passed by, students were watching television screens, not the teacher. The teacher was sitting at a desk and students in the back rows were chatting with each other, not interested in the video lesson.

“Some teachers were even grading exams or doing paperwork while the videos were playing,” Mrs. Kim said. “I wouldn’t send my kid to school if the only thing they did all day was watch videos.”

Aside from the two Web sites that the government runs - Edunet (edunet4u.net) and Kkulmatdotcom (kkulmat.com) - teachers also use the Web sites of private education companies.
A school inspector from the Seoul Office of Education said, “Since two or three years ago, teachers have been relying on online content so much that they are called ‘click teachers.’”

Of course, when used appropriately, online content can make a class more interesting and effective. This emerging issue in South Korea is one that other countries face as well, with the internet inserting itself more and more into the process of education at all levels.

North Korean Defectors to Visit U.S. on Government-sponsored WEST program

Yonhap reports that a group of five North Korean defectors currently enrolled in South Korean colleges will visit the United States on a US government-sponsored programme reserved, until now, for South Korean students only, a government official said today.The five North Korean defectors will likely head for the United States next month, according to the official from Seoul's Unification Ministry."The US Embassy in South Korea and the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology selected the five students in April for the West programme," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.Under the student exchange program, South Korean students can visit the United States for up to 18 months -- five months of mandatory language programmes plus internships up to one year long at US companies, followed by one month reserved for free travels.Thousands of students have visited or are visiting the United States under the programme since its launch in early 2009, but no one originally from North Korea had been offered the chance until now. "We believe the programme will help North Korean defectors get wider experience and better prepare for their future employment," the ministry official said."The ministry will consider extending the programme to more North Korean defectors," he said, adding there are currently about 850 college students here who defected from North Korea.

SUNY Announces New Recruitment Strategy Employing Recruitment Agents

The State University of New York (SUNY) system has announced plans to increase international student enrollment by 14,000 students over the next five years. The bold new global recruitment initiative is intended to bring direct benefit to SUNY by using new international student tuition revenue to fund rapid expansion of scholarships to students, grants to faculty, and more. The new international student strategy is closely tied to SUNY’s strategic plan, The Power of SUNY, and the university’s role as an economic driver for New York State.
According to Mitch Leventhal, SUNY Vice Chancellor for Global Affairs, “What is unique here is that the SUNY system is managing agency relationships and providing the infrastructure, which frees up SUNY campuses to focus on their recruiting targets and how they relate to their academic mission.” Further details are found in this June 2 communications release from the SUNY system.
Of course, the new SUNY strategy relates directly to the rising debate over the use of commercial student recruitment agents in study abroad, as dealt with in earlier posts on this blog.  Your comments are welcome.

New Media Overtake Old in Korea's Advertising War

The Joongang Daily has an interesting article on the current dynamics in South Korea's advertising market.   As in other countries around the world, the internet and other new digital media have overtaken the older, traditional print and broadcasting media in the advertising market. The operator of Naver, Korea’s top Web portal, is the king of the hill when it comes to advertising revenue.

NHN raked in more than 1.1 trillion won ($1.02 billion) in advertising revenue last year, according to a report by Digieco, an economic research institute. That is more than several major broadcasters and dailies combined.

Industry experts attribute NHN’s success to its near monopoly over content produced by conventional media like broadcasters, newspapers and magazines.

NHN’s dominance has forced Daum and SK Communications - No. 2 and No. 3 in the market - into a corner. In a desperate attempt to challenge NHN, they joined forces.

Under the deal, SK and Daum introduced integrated services on Wednesday for their popular NateOn and Cyworld.

Naver held 70.1 percent of the Internet search market in April, according to market researcher Nielson Company Korea, while shares of Daum and SK Communications were 20 percent and 4.3 percent, respectively.