The Korea Herald

Herald Edu inks English education partnership with Univ. of Wisconsin

Jan 20, 2015

Herald Edu, Inc., the education branch of Herald Corp., signed a memorandum of understanding on academic collaboration with the University of Wisconsin-Stout, officials said Tuesday.The MOU will initiate discussions on various partnerships between the two including Gwanak Camp English Village in southern Seoul, one of six English villages in Korea run by Herald Edu.“The MOU with the University of Wisconsin-Stout will allow us to introduce more advanced English and character-education programs fr
Korea revamps state scholarship to weed out wrongful beneficiaries

Jan 19, 2015

The Education Ministry has remodeled the state scholarship program to ensure that the benefits go to those who actually need them, officials said Monday.The state college scholarship program provides financial support to students based on their family’s economic level, with less wealthy students entitled to more money. The previous system to determine household wealth was based on income and assets like real estate and cars, without taking into account factors such as pensions, financial assets
Univ. students trust strangers more than politicians, corporations: survey

Jan 19, 2015

South Korean university students find strangers to be more trustworthy than local politicians and companies, a survey showed Monday, demonstrating the high level of pessimism among the younger generation about the political and economic agents in the country. In a survey of 2,300 students from 130 universities throughout the country, 2.6 percent responded that they trusted politicians, whereas 8.4 percent said they found strangers to be reliable, a local research institute said. The poll was car
‘Half-price tuition’ faces sustainability questions

Jan 18, 2015

President Park Geun-hye’s flagship education policy of “half-price” college tuition is facing skepticism from experts over the lack of long-term financial resources to sustain it.During a New Year’s press conference, Park vowed to finalize the policy this year. The president claimed that by expanding the state-backed scholarship programs, coupled with college scholarship programs, students’ financial burden would effectively be halved.But officials from the Korea Higher Education Research Instit
Ewha Womans University to freeze tuition

Jan 15, 2015

Education Minister Hwang Woo-yea (left) shakes hands with Choi Kyung-hee, the president of Ewha Womans University, during his visit to the university campus in Seoul on Wednesday. (Yonhap)Ewha Womans University said Wednesday it would freeze tuition fees for the 2015 school year, reversing its original plan to raise them by 2.4 percent. “(The university) will freeze the fees this year in accordance with the government policy to pursue half-priced tuition,” university president Choi Kyung-hwa sai
School calendar change to cost W10tr: report

Jan 15, 2015

The government’s plan to adopt a Western-style school year would cost up to 10 trillion won ($9.2 billion) over 12 years, local researchers said Monday.The Education Ministry recently said it was considering moving the beginning of the school year from March to September, a move intended to attract more students and faculty members from abroad while making it easier for Korean students to join foreign programs during the summer.According to the Korea Educational Development Institute, one way to
[Herald Interview] Knowledge key in Dokdo, comfort women issues

Jan 15, 2015

‘Dokdo specialist’ says education is the first step to raising the historical awareness of students
Students dissatisfied with English classes

Jan 14, 2015

Nearly 70 percent of students in middle and high schools said they are discontented with the way the English classes are taught at their schools, a survey showed Wednesday.According to a survey carried out by a high school teacher in Seoul, about 69 percent of respondents also said they think that school classes alone are insufficient when trying to improve one’s English skills. The survey was conducted on 990 middle and high school students.In addition, the report suggested a mismatch between w
Hanyang fosters future technology leaders

Jan 12, 2015

In the face of globalization and the diversification of consumer demands, the need for creative new technologies is greater than ever before. In a bid to cater to such needs, Hanyang University’s Graduate School of Technology and Innovation Management said it was seeking to foster talented individuals equipped with a capacity for technological innovation and design for the future.HYMOT claims that since it was founded in 2011, it has been enhancing competence in Korea by cultivating leaders in t
Colleges reforming ahead of state evaluation

Jan 11, 2015

With the government-initiated college reform about to take effect, tertiary education institutes across the country are scrambling to implement measures that will improve their scores in the upcoming evaluation by the Education Ministry.Last year, the ministry rolled out plans to reduce the number of college openings by 2022. Measures are aimed at preventing problems likely to occur around 2018, when the number of college openings is expected to surpass the number of high school graduates.The mi
Education spending gap widens between rich and poor

Jan 7, 2015

The haves in Korea spend 1.6 times more money on their children’s private education than the have-nots do, a local civic group said Wednesday.The top 10 percent income earners spend an average of 368,700 won ($335) per household in the third quarter of 2014, A World Without Worries About Private Education said, citing data from Statistics Korea. But the bottom 10 percent spent 22,200 won.While the spending for the top 10 percent decreased by 0.8 percent compared to the same period in 2013, the b
Universities toughen rules on postponing graduation

Jan 5, 2015

Universities said Monday they would no longer allow students to postpone graduation without signing up for new semesters, sparking complaints from students seeking to buy time to stack up academic credentials before entering the job market.Ewha Womans University recently announced it would introduce a “degree completion” policy for students who acquired all the necessary college credits for graduation, but failed to submit their thesis or take the graduation exams. The move effectively blocks st
HUFS alumni chief offers scholarship funds

Jan 5, 2015

Kwon Soon-Han (left), the president of the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies Alumni Association, poses with HUFS president Kim In-chul during a ceremony to commemorate his donation of 300 million won ($270,000) in scholarship funds at the university campus in Seoul on Friday. (HUFS)Kwon Soon-Han, the president of the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies Alumni Association, has donated 300 million won ($270,000) to HUFS in scholarship funds, school officials said Monday.The 71-year-old CEO of
Industry resists policy to bar foreign teachers from preschools

Jan 1, 2015

The Education Ministry said last month it was considering banning foreign nationals from working at private preschool academies, but the plan has been hit by doubts about its plausibility before even taking off. The ministry claimed that not having native speakers in private institutes ― known here as hagwon ― would considerably reduce the amount parents spend on English private education. “The costs of hagwon hiring foreigners is way too high. Our preliminary research indicates that the cost of
Korea to expand installment plans for college tuition

Jan 1, 2015

The Education Ministry on Thursday rolled out measures to widen the scope of the installment-based payment system for college tuition, such as allowing a wider range of students to use it.The installment payment system was introduced by the government so that students would not have to make a single sizeable payment on their college tuition. While 92.8 percent of all colleges have adopted the system, only 2.3 percent of students have used it as of the first semester of 2014 due to several restri