Higher Education Policy and the Transition to a KBE in South Korea:

in the Case of Brain Korea 21

Jae-Youl Lee

Global Futures in Higher Education

Worldwide Universities Network

Seminar Series via Access Grid

Feb. 14, 2006

Flow of Presentation

• Characteristics of South Korean Economy

• Political Economy of South Korea

• Policy Formation of Brain Korea 21

• Implementation of Brain Korea 21

• Summary

Presenter• Name: Jae-Youl Lee• Education

– Ph.D. student, Geography, UW-Madison

– M.A./ B.A. Geog. Edu., Seoul National University, S. Korea (’01/’99)

• Interests in Geography– Economic Restructuring– Urban Development– Education?

Economic Growth

Rapid growth: near 8 percent annual growth rate, 1965 - 1997

GDP per capita relative to OECD countries and the US (OECD, 2005)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 Year

%

export in GDP domestic consumption in GDP

Dependence on Export

Leading Export Sectors

Political Economy of South Korea

The Origin of a Developmental State

• Developmental State– Gen. Jung Hee Park (’61-’79)– State-led development

• 5 Year Plans• Economic Planning Board

(EBP)• Export promotion policies• Domestic market protection

Changes in the early 1990s

• Democratization • Young Sam Kim Administration

– 1993 - 1998 – Sekyehwa = globalization– Freer Market Economy– Abolishment of EPB– OECD membership (1996)– Difficulties in keeping low wage– Other emerging economies– Decreasing terms of trade since

mid-1990s

East Asian Crisis (1997-8)

Making a Transition (OECD, 2005)

A national human resources development project to nurture high quality human resources required for the knowledge-based society of the 21st century (MOE, 2003)

Financial support to high-tech and future-oriented sectors such as IT, bioengineering, and other knowledge-based fields (Government Announcement on May 25, 1999 )

BK 21 and Economic Restructuring

“The collapse of the science and engineering research will lead to the complete collapse of national economy…With manufacturing collapsed 15 years ago, technological panic will rock the existence of Korea…The BK21 is a really good policy. Loosely studying, foolish social science guys like you never understand, but our scientists and engineers are feeling its necessity from the bottom of heart.” (translation from an e-mail correspondence with Minwoo Son, a former BK 21 beneficiary)

KBE and Government Reorganization

• 2000 President New Year Speech“Without revolutionary education reform, Korea cannot create a knowledge-based society. Without knowledge base, we have no hope for a bright future... To meet the requirements in New Millennium… The government will promote Education Minister to Deputy Prime Minister to coordinate the entire human resources development policies encompassing education, training, culture, tourism, science and technology ” (Dae Jung Kim, former President Jan. 3, 2000)

Ministers promoted to Deputy PM since 2000

Key Education Ministers

• Traditionally filled by university professors

• Reformers since the late 1990s– Hae-Chan Lee (1998 – 1999)

politician

post-crisis education reforms– Jin-Pyo Kim (2005 - )

Economic bureaucrat

former Economy Minister (2003-2004)

Cooperation with Global Institutions

• A collaborative policy recommendations from OECD (2001) World Bank (2000) at the request of South Korean government

• Policy recommendations for Korean HE reforms1. continue “centers of excellence”

like BK21 2. promote more competition

among universities3. promote partnership with

industries4. liberalize national HE market

“The [present] system was developed to serve the needs of organization of production in industrial society… The new knowledge-based economy requires a different type… The axis of vocational education should move to the post-secondary level to meet the demands of knowledge-based economy… The government has introduced several measures to improve the quality of university education… [T]he Brain Korea 21… to prepare for the Korean workforce for the coming century” (Ch. 3)

Implementation• Main principles

– ‘selection and concentration’: competitive research climate– university reforms attached to financial support

(institutional basis for research-oriented universities)– new workforce with international level creativity– International cooperation with foreign universities

• How much? – First BK21 (’99-’05) - US$ 1.4B; post-BK21 (’06-’12) - US$

2.3B (compare with Seoul National University budget US$ 430 million in 2005)

• Midterm performance evaluation– elimination and fund reduction– criteria: # of SCI publications, patent issuance, university

reforms, etc…

Competitive Research Environment

JY: The BK21 started in the 2nd semester [of 1999]. You might get some money…

HS: BK? It was mean. It required giving money to only 75% of students under a professor to promote competition in individual labs… Some mean professors strictly kept the rule… But, mine was a gentleman. He distributed evenly after collecting all as almost others did.

(translation of a talk with a Korean graduate student at UW-Madison, a former BK21 beneficiary)

University Reform Requirements: Network to Practices of a GI?

• Reducing undergraduates and increasing graduates; consolidation of related redundant academic departments; graduate admission system to recruit more than half students from outside; introduction of faculty evaluation linked with annual salary system; etc…

• Learning-by-doing?: the state’s experience of financial reform package attached to IMF bail-out fund?

International Level Creativity: Network to Global Journals

• Production of SCI-level articles • Recitation of Representations in Global Media and Institution (MOE, 2005a) – An article in The Chronicle of

Higher Education on Jul. 12, 2004

“The reporter [of The Chronicle] analyzes that a great part of the success [in scientific researches] comes from…Brain Korea 21”

– Introduction in a Deutsche Bank Report on Aug. 1, 2005

“Deutsche Bank introduces South Korea’s educational reform as a notable example of success in human capital accumulation”

(MOE, 2005a)

International Cooperation: Uneven Geography of Global Networks

(Count by Presenter from MOE, 2005b)

BK 21 Global Campus

• A new program in the post-BK21 (2006-2012)

• 2 million dollars per a year• To help student participate

in internship and training in firms in Silicon Valley

• To cultivate global-minded, future-oriented management personnel in the field of S&T

• Benchmarking Singapore– Overseas College Program – National University of

Singapore

So, BK21 is… 1. A developmental state’s response to the East

Asian Economic Crisis to restructure national economy toward a KBE

2. A process of national policy formation hybridizing heterogeneous ideas and practices from outside including individual states and global organizations

3. A discursive construction enabling the coming of a KBE in South Korea

4. A spatial process that creates uneven geographies of global networks among South Korean HEIs