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The Task of Reformulating University System and a Critique of the Discourse for Networking National Universities: In Reference to Paris University and the California Higher Education System
Cross-Cultural Studies
2017,
49(), pp.181-200
DOI : 10.21049/ccs.2017.49..181
Publisher : Center for Cross Culture Studies
Research Area : Literature
DOI : 10.21049/ccs.2017.49..181
Publisher : Center for Cross Culture Studies
Research Area : Literature
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One of the most lasting and influential projects for radical reform of Korean universities is a discourse on networking national and public universities. The discourse, proposed with a level equalization of universities as its ideological basis has raised various discussions and suggestions in the past 20 years. It was proposed as a fundamental solution to the ‘disastrous’ hierarchical structure of universities and ‘hellish’ entrance exam competition. This paper aims at reexamining the efficacy of its ideological proposition and its practicability at the present time in reference to such foreign cases, which have worked as model cases for this discourse: the reformation of the University of Paris and the California master plan for higher education in the 1960s. The two different contexts, however, should be considered in applying the cases to Korean university reform. 1) The foreign cases of united universities were formed ‘naturally’ in the expanding phases of higher education while the Korean project pursued ‘artificially’ in the midst of reconstructing process. 2) The foreign cases had an overall influence on education in general as most of the universities in those countries were public or national, while the effect of Korean project will be very limited as most of the university students attend private universities. Besides those differences, the new situations surrounding universities such as globalized competitiveness and technological innovation is making the idea of standardization of universities obsolete. Korean university reform should not be centered on the integration of universities but on their characterization and enhance the specific strengths of each group of universities.
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