Studies on the Actual Condition of Higher Education

Korean War was a great obstacle for the development of early higher education. After three years of brutal war in Korea, students of higher education suffered greatly. Many young men left their universities for the military during the war, so the number of college student declined due to the need for the war effort. Since both United Nations troops and enemy forces used universities as infrastructure for billeting troops, approximately 40 percent of facilities of higher education were destroyed. And 50 percent of professors and school staffs died.

Another difficulty that the promotion of higher education faced was poverty and political disunity within the nation. Only 10 percent of higher educational institutions were so called modernized higher educational institutions. Therefore, the regional, wealth, age, and political gaps existed within the population. The political alignment and differences between students and faculties posed as a serious problem within campuses. Two main groups were the supporters of the Soviet-inspired "People's Republic of Korea" versus those of Syngman Rhee.¹¹¹ Student and faculty strikes became so severe that they resulted in a Military Government directive in March 1946, forbidding participation in political demonstrations and any dissemination of propaganda

111 Adams, Higher Education Reforms in the Republic of Korea, 5

48

in schools.¹¹² Later on, situations became so severe that the first modern national university in Korea, Seoul National University became inoperative. Due to continuous student strikes and faculty absences, the campus had to close and students were suspended. With the American government as the center, Rhee received foreign support by sending advisors to inspect the educational development of Korea.

In the middle of Korean War, 1952, an educational survey team called United Nations Korean Reconstruction Agency (UNKRA) Education Planning Mission stayed in South Korea for three months to carry on investigation for higher education of South Korea. According to the in-depth analysis of the Mission, major problems were (1) small population of universities (2) lack of school curriculum and (3) limited proper laboratory instruments and books in school libraries. The Ministry of Education (MOE) authorized the enrollment of higher education institution as 51,320, but there was only 32,000 in that year. The Mission also reported that greater amounts of college students were studying in college of liberal arts. In response, the team recommended that training highly skilled manpower take a higher priority.

a. Improvement of facilities for teacher education, technical, and medical colleges b. Increased provisions for foreign study for Korean professors

c. Establishment of conferences and seminars to improve methods of teaching, particularly in science

d. Production of textbooks in the Korean language

e. More extensive use of visiting foreign specialists in advisory capacities.¹¹³

112 Adams, Higher Education Reforms in the Republic of Korea, 5

113 UNESC0-UNKRA Educational Planning Mission to Korea, Rebuilding Education in the Republic of Korea, 163

49

From 1948 to 1959, the United States Operations Mission to Korea (ICA/USOM), the largest American organization that stayed longest, assisted Ministry of Education of South Korea. In May 1960, the ICA/USOM published a factual survey on higher education institutions and recommendations in a book called the Report on Survey of National Higher Education in the Republic of Korea; in following categories: administration, organization and physical plant;

agricultural sciences; engineering and science; health sciences; humanities and social sciences;

teacher education.¹¹⁴ The report offered 15 suggestions:

1. Establishment of a Board of Regents in the Ministry of Education for the management, on a high-level policy basis, of all national universities and colleges.

2. Development of a centralized type of university internal organization together with the related short and long-range university, college rind campus consolidations.

3. Substitution of a faculty consultation method for tie existing secret ballot procedure in the appointment and promotion of members of the academic and administrative staffs.

4. Improvement of academic staff salaries.

5. Establishment of student and staff quotas on a college or university basis rather than on a departmental basis.

6. Changes in budget administrative procedures, particularly those involving retention of institutional income and appropriations to universities instead of to colleges.

7. Establishment of a staff improvement program including foreign study for Koreans and United States adviser assistance in the general field of administration, organization and physical plant.

8. Continuation of present improvement program, including both foreign study and adviser assistance in the fields of agriculture, health sciences, and engineering, with preference

henceforth to the national universities and colleges other than Seoul National University. Priority in the field of agriculture to be given to the unification of agricultural extension and research with instruction in the national colleges of agriculture.

9. Continuation of teacher-training improvement program with emphasis on upgrading of normal schools.

10. Continuation of business administration improvement program with preference henceforth to one or possibly two national colleges of commerce.

11. Continuation of the public administration improvement program.

12. Extension of the improvement program to include such related natural sciences as

114 Adams, Higher Education Reforms in the Republic of Korea, 15

50

mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology and geology, and such supporting social sciences as economics, psychology, sociology, political science and geography.

13. Provision of more adequate building and equipment maintenance and repair funds.

14. Provision of equipment and looks with preference to the above fields.

15. Provision of new construction and rehabilitation funds only after the completion of

recommended building planning studies and only when in accord with the recommended campus changes.¹¹⁵