Korea becomes hot summer-school destination

Word-of-mouth recommendations among foreign students play a crucial role in boosting the number of summer school students, according to university staff.

“Students who had taken a summer course in Korea recommended their friends to follow suit,” Jang said.

A memorable and unique experience in Asia is another reason why students choose Korea over other countries for summer courses.

Christoph Huss, 23, attends a university in Switzerland and chose, along with his friend, a program in Seoul over the one in Paris as they “wanted to get some experiences and surprises” in a different culture. “Even if the two programs were the same price, we would choose Korea because it’s a new experience totally,” he said.

Some students come to Korea to take a class their school does not offer.

Aisha Barnes, 22-year-old student from University of South Carolina, came to Korea University to learn about Korea.

“At my home university, a lot of classes focus more on Japanese and Chinese instead of Korean,” she said. “I wanted to know more about Korea as a whole, the culture, the food and everything else in between.”

The high quality of the faculty is another advantage that characterizes summer programs in Korea. Yonsei and Korea University have increased the number of visiting professors to 40 and 56, respectively, for their summer programs.

The faculty of the programs also includes world-renowned professors. For instance, Stephen Stich, a leading scholar of philosophy, has begun to give lectures at Korea University this summer. He is in charge of two philosophy classes with 50 students each.

Kathryn Weathersby from the Johns Hopkins University, who is well-known among experts on Korea’s modern history, has taught students for three years at Korea University. Yonsei University assigned a U.S. law class to former New York State Supreme Court Judge Danny Chun for three years.

Among the other notable foreign faculty members are Charles Hamden-Turner of the University of Cambridge, who created “Dilemma Theory,” and Raymond Abelin from Nanyang Technological University. The two scholars have been teaching business classes at Sungkyunkwan University since 2008.

Lucy Woods, a 21-year-old British student studying at Hanyang University, said lectures in Korea are tougher than those in her home country.

“They (British universities) wouldn’t give you tests really, and they would be a sort of extra curriculum. They wouldn’t be mainstream subjects,” she said.

To expand the student enrollment and bolster the quality, Korea’s major universities are running summer courses with overseas partner universities. Ewha Womans University runs a summer school with University of Southern California’s East Asian Studies Center.

“The Korean Studies faculty and EASC see it as a wonderful opportunity for students to gain firsthand cultural experiences while taking courses on Korea on site,” said Choe Young-min, a professor of USC who has come to teach Korean cinema at Ewha for the summer.