KS's Global Insights into Higher Education

On March 19, 2012, Dr. Nancy Zimpher, a high-profile figure from the State University of New York and the Chancellor of the largest public higher education system in the United States, stood side by side with Mr. Young Gil Song, then Mayor of Incheon Metropolitan City Government. Mr. Song later rose to become the leader of the ruling party and a five-term lawmaker, amassing significant political power. They celebrated the inauguration of the first U.S. campus in South Korea, formally approved by the Ministry of Education. Dr. Zimpher proudly announced the establishment of SUNY's 65th campus, "SUNY Korea," in East Asia – in addition to the 64 campuses in New York State. Initially, this campus offered only a few graduate programs from Stony Brook University. Dr. Myung Oh, a proud alumnus of Stony Brook University, played a pivotal role in bringing his Ph.D. alma mater to the Incheon Free Economic Zone. Having led several government organizations, he became Deputy Prime Mini...

"No Uruguay Round! Farmers Perish Amid Plummeting Rice Prices!" It seems like yesterday when I was an elementary school student in a humble farming hamlet in Jeongeup, Jeollabuk-do. My grandparents, small-scale farmers, lived there. I still vividly remember the unease I felt upon seeing a bold, red slogan painted on our village community hall. I may not have fully grasped its precise meaning then, but an overwhelming sense that our lives were being infiltrated by something substantial was imprinted in my young mind. It's been 30 years since the conclusion of the Uruguay Round. This led to the foundation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995 and the enforcement of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), signifying the opening of the education market. In 1993, I was a primary schooler; a decade later, I went to the university. The noticeable shifts on campus, such as the surge in 'English-mediated lectures', 'international students',...