KS's Global Insights into Higher Education

 "Dad, Columbus discovered the New World!" A few days ago, my first-grade daughter jubilantly announced this after reading a biography, leaving me at a loss. Was Columbus truly a great man? Is the history he crafted something to discuss with such exuberance? The notion that 'Columbus's discovery of the New World' emanates from a predominantly Western-centric mindset is no longer a novel perspective. The "New World" they claimed to have discovered was actually an Old World, already inhabited. The so-called Indians were simply indigenous peoples living according to their own customs. Not content with claiming an already inhabited land as 'new', they killed or displaced the natives — a more grievous injustice is hard to imagine from the natives' perspective. In November 2022, the Association for the Study of Higher Education held its conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. In the conference hall, where I had come with my professor to present a paper, I...

  The recent discussions surrounding diversity in the United States, a country with a strong foothold in higher education globally, are particularly intriguing to me, a doctoral student majoring in higher education administration and an individual who has been working in the field of higher education internationalization for about 13 years. For the first time in the history of Harvard University, a black individual was elected president at the end of last year. It was in 2023, about 14 years after the emergence of the first black president of the United States, a world-leading power, that a black president was inaugurated at what is often referred to as the world's best university. Shortly after this news was announced, Purdue University, one of America's prestigious institutions, announced in early January 2023 that the university had its first Asian-American president in its history. Interestingly, this appointment drew further attention as it occurred soon after the chancell...

Syracuse University, based in the United States, has highlighted its interest in establishing an International Branch Campus (IBC) in South Korea. This is part of a broader initiative led by the university's president to strengthen ties with South Korea and is indicative of the global engagement trend that is increasingly being embraced by higher education institutions worldwide. South Korea's higher education system is faced with a challenge due to an impending decline in the number of potential college students - projected to drop from 450,000 in 2020 to a worrying 280,000 in 2040. This demographic shift might suggest that the timing is not right for such international expansion. However, the reality on the ground indicates that there has been steady enrolment growth in the three US and one Belgian branch campuses currently hosted in the country. The COVID-19 pandemic has shone a light on the value of IBCs in South Korea. With international travel restrictions in place, these...

As we commence January 2023, it's the season of college admissions in South Korea. The Gaokao, often referred to as the "Chinese CSAT," is a standardized national college entrance examination in China. Introduced in 1952, a good 42 years earlier than South Korea's equivalent, the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), it is known as the largest exam in the world held by a single country, with over 10 million test takers annually. Unsurprisingly, the Gaokao serves as a gateway for Chinese students to enter Chinese universities. But what will happen if Korean universities create a 'Gaokao admission track'? The concept of a nation's university entrance exam transcending its borders and being adopted globally presents an intriguing scenario. The 'one-time filtering' method, which sifts out student eligibility and capacity through standardized tests managed by the government, is prevalently employed in countries where the Confucian tradition of societa...

Imagine a high school senior gearing up for the 2024 college admissions, who walks into the guidance counselor's office one day asking which university to choose from among Minerva University, Korea Institute of Energy Technology (KENTECH), or Taejae University. It's hard to deny the fact that since its launch in 2012, Minerva University has been at the forefront of revolutionizing global higher education for over a decade. Born in California, this educational start-up initially known as 'Minerva Institute' or 'Minerva School at KGI,' rebranded itself as "Minerva University" upon gaining accreditation from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges/Senior College and University Commission in 2021. Minerva University has been nothing short of an emblem for "university innovation" in Korea since 2016. Minerva's groundbreaking approach in California has also made quite an impact in Korea. A corporate founder invested a significant porti...

In 2012, South Korea initiated a global educational hub called Incheon Global Campus (IGC) as part of government-led efforts to globalize higher education. This article explores the developments at the US campuses in Korea over the past decade. South Korea is globally renowned for its contribution to international student mobility, with roughly 200,000 Korean students enrolled in higher education institutions worldwide in 2020. Notably, the most popular destination was the US, followed by China, Japan, and Canada. However, this student mobility is largely outbound, with the number of Korean students studying abroad significantly outnumbering incoming international students. This has led to a substantial trade deficit in education. In an attempt to balance this situation, the Korean government, inspired by globalisation and international pressures, encouraged educational exchanges by setting up the IGC, inviting prestigious universities to establish campuses in Korea. This initiative ai...