Four Korean colleges will be prohibited from receiving new foreign students for a year, the government said Sunday.The Education Ministry said the student or language study visa would not be issued for foreign students seeking to attend Hansei University, Gyeongnam National University of Science and Technology, Jeonbuk Science College and Taegu Science University. Students already attending the institutes and those coming to the cited schools through a student exchange program, however, will be

The Education Ministry is keeping track of sex-related crimes at less than half of universities in Korea, a lawmaker told local media on Sunday.Just 78 universities ― 39 percent of 198 universities here ― have submitted data on sex offenses that occurred on their campuses, Yonhap reported, citing Rep. Park Joo-sun of the New Politics Alliance for Democracy. While the Education Ministry requests data on sex offenses, universities are not mandated by law to comply. A ministry official said require

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education and a national teachers’ group announced plans Thursday to protect teachers’ rights by providing legal assistance and counseling.In response to growing complaints by teachers of abuse by students and their parents, the SMOE said it had earmarked 220 million won ($200,000) to protect teachers from abuse. The initiative was launched with the Korean Federation of Teachers’ Association, Korea’s largest conservative teachers’ group. “I hope this plan will be

Severe lack of exercise is having serious repercussions for the health of teenage girls, Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education and local teachers’ group said Thursday.According to the SMOE and the Korea Federation of Teachers’ Associations, about 66.8 percent of girls aged 10-19 in Seoul do not partake in any physical activities, while only 26 percent of them exercise at least once a week. They also said 43.7 percent of female students in middle and high school were regularly stressed out while

Schools in rural areas are increasingly finding it difficult to attract new recruits, with declining number of students and parents preferring to educate their children in the cities.Some 120 elementary, middle and high schools across the country will not be holding an entrance ceremony this year since there are no applicants, according to Yonhap. Most are elementary schools located in the smaller fishing or farming communities, with poor education infrastructure.Another 130 schools have just on

Over 1 in 5 middle school teachers in Korea regret their choice of profession, a survey showed Tuesday.According to a report by Yang Jung-ho, education professor at Sungkyunkwan University, 20.1 percent of teachers had second thoughts about their profession, the highest among all members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Korea was followed by Sweden, Portugal, Bulgaria and Chile, which recorded dissatisfaction rates of 17.8 percent, 16.2 percent, 14.6 percent and 13.9

Student loans from the government rose nearly three-fold from 2010 to 2014 due to tuition increases, a private research institute said Friday.  Outstanding government-funded student loans came to 10.7 trillion won ($9.8 billion) as of the end of last year, 2.9 times higher than 3.7 trillion won in 2010, the Korea Higher Education Research Institute said, citing figures from the Korea Student Aid Foundation.   The foundation is a quasi-government organization in charge of handling government loan

Seoul High Court on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit against the state to nullify the grading for a defective question on the 2013 College Scholastic Ability Test, saying that sufficient action had already been taken following last year’s ruling on the same question.In December 2013, 59 people who took that year’s state-commissioned college entrance exam, called the Suneung here, launched a lawsuit against the Education Ministry and the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation ― in charge of m

The amount of money South Koreans spent on education abroad dropped to the lowest level in nine years, central bank data showed Tuesday, as tepid local economic conditions discouraged people from studying overseas.  Koreans studying abroad spent a total of $3.72 billion in 2014, down 14 percent from a year earlier, according to the data by the Bank of Korea. The reading, which includes spending by exchange students and language school students, is the lowest since $3.38 billion in 2005.  Koreans

Policymakers have launched discussions to augment the unification-related lessons taught at elementary, middle and high schools to increase students’ interest in the subjects, officials said Wednesday.The Unification Ministry recently conferred with the Education Ministry recommending at least eight hours of unification education in schools. It was in reaction to last year’s survey ― jointly conducted by both ministries ― in which only 53.5 percent of students said unification was necessary, acc

The Education Ministry recently rolled out plans to expand the use of “personality evaluations” in the national college admissions process as part of efforts to place more importance on personal social education in middle and high schools. But the plan has sparked confusion from education circles as the government has presented it without details.The ministry said it would push to apply a “personality test” section for admission, currently used by some colleges, to all higher education institute

The Ministry of Education on Thursday unveiled its policy to revamp the education system to better accommodate multicultural families.In the 2015 policy briefing session by six ministries at the presidential office, the Education Ministry said it would establish kindergarten courses for multicultural children in 30 educational institutes. It will also expand the number of preparatory schools ― operated for children of migrant families having difficulty with regular school curriculums ― from 80 t

Korean parents consider their English language abilities to be the least desirable aspect of themselves for their children to take after, a survey found Wednesday. According to a survey conducted by the English language institute Yoons English School, 71.5 percent of parents with children in elementary school want their children to have higher English proficiency than themselves.Regarding the level of proficiency they want for their children, 41.2 percent considered being able to hold a conversa

A group of test-takers of the 2013 college entrance exam lodged a lawsuit against the government, demanding to be compensated for the damages inflicted upon them by a flawed question.The case was the first claim for damages filed by students concerning errors in the state-commissioned annual exam, dubbed the “Suneung” in Korea. After the 2013 exams in November, four test-takers challenged the accuracy of a world geography question. The Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation, in charge of