Ministry steps up to improve university education
Under the plan, the ministry will first increase support for universities to strengthen their core capacity of teaching and learning. Second, regulations will be eased and systems improved so as to help universities secure more finance for operation. Third, the ministry will introduce various incentives and evaluation schemes to induce performance-based competition among universities.
As a part of the first scheme, the ministry will select 30 well-operated Centers for Teaching and Learning(CTL) at universities to provide financial support, so that they may further assist professors in developing teaching skills and help students cope well with academic life and studies.
In another effort, the “Best Lecture Awards” and “Doctoral Dissertation of the Year Award” have been newly established to help improve the quality of lectures and dissertation instruction. As a means of improving the international adaptability of domestic degrees and increasing cross-border workforce mobility, the ministry will also induce academic societies and expert groups to participate in developing curricula of global standards. In particular, the curricula of junior colleges and vocational courses at universities will be developed through the input of the industrial sector. In addition, universities will be encouraged to share lectures delivered by excellent professors with other universities and the public through the Internet.
Second, in a major step of deregulation to help increase higher education finance, the ministry will allow private universities to invest their reserves in secondary financial circles such as securities. Buildings of outside ownership, such as cultural sites, gymnasiums and research facilities, may be established on unused campus spaces, so that universities can pursue profitable activities in comply with educational purposes. In order to foster more school companies, the ministry will remove a major part of prohibitions currently set on certain business categories. Of the present 102 business categories that disallow university engagement in industrial operation, a total of 81 fields will be opened in the near future. Alongside, the proportion of indirect costs as of research expenses will be increased from 15 percent to 20 percent by the end of 2007, and again increased at a yearly rate of 5 percent with aims to reach an average ratio of 30~40 percent as found in advanced economies.
Third, under a strong push to generate performance-based competition in higher education, the ministry will conduct a close analysis on the degree of university education meeting industrial demands and the average costs needed to retrain new recruits, and ensure that the results are fully reflected in future curricular development. Surveys will be carried out to measure the level of graduates’ satisfaction for university education and the level of companies’ satisfaction for graduate students’ qualities. In order to level up the quality of doctoral papers, dissertations will be made viewable through the Korea Education & Research Information System for public access. When conducting university evaluation, different weights will be given to different criteria for individual universities, so that different specialization fields and strategies and may be taken into consultation. Evaluation results will be reflected in the ministry’s future administrative and financial support measures for universities, including incentives. In addition, the ministry intends to coordinate closely with the OECD in endeavors to develop the newly proposed “PISA for Higher Education” program.
With the plan, the ministry of education seeks to nurture qualified human resources adaptable to any given global environment, and raise Korea’s international ranking to the world’s 20th by 2012 in terms of the degree of universities meeting the needs of the economy.
웹사이트: http://www.moe.go.kr
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2008년 2월 20일 16:26
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2008년 2월 18일 16:28