U.S. and Non-U.S. Scholars

Fulbright New Century Scholars Program
Overview • Previous NCS Programs • NCS Scholar List • NCS Brochure • 2007-2008

Kim, Ki-Seok

• Professor& Director
  
• Seoul National University
  
• Department of Education and University Archives
  
• Republic of Korea

Dr. Kim began my career in 1985 as a sociologist of education at Seoul National University, after studying in the Department of Educational Policy Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  He has since been working as professor of education, College of Education, Seoul National University.  Dr. Kim has created the Korean Education Archives in 1993 and, 5 years later, founded University Archives which was the first in its kind in public universities of Korea.

From a number of study visits to international organizations such as the World Bank, OECD, and UNESCO, Dr. Kim has assembled a network of international educators for what he has termed “Quality Education for All: QEFA.”  By joining into the NCS program, he hopes to extend the network’s reach to encompass a much larger range of international collaborations.  He has been appointed as Executive Board Member (Alternate) of UNESCO Institute of Lifelong Learning(or UILL in short) in Hamburg last year and also appointed as Vice-Chair of Education Committee and Executive Board Member of The Korean Commission for UNESCO from 2005. Within our school, Dr. Kim has worked as Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs in 1999-2000 and did so as Director-General, Institute of Asia-Pacific Education Development (iAPED). 

The awards and citations Dr. Kim has received include: (1) Distinguished International Scholar, Paulo Freire Institute, Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, UCLA, 2006 Feb., & (2) Alumni Achievement Award, School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2003 May.
Select Publications

• “Emperor Gwangmu’s Diplomatic Struggles to Protect His Sovereignty before and after 1905,” Korea Journal, (Summer, 2006)
•  The Birth of Identical Twins in 1946: The Makings of Seoul National University and Kim Il-Sung University, Seoul: Educational Science Publishing Co., 2001
•  “Japanese Colonial Education as a Contested Terrain,” Asia Pacific Education Review, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 75-90, The Institute of Asia Pacific Education Development, Seoul National University, 2000
•  “The Rapid Expansion of Secondary Education,” The Current Status of Education, S. I. Kim et al (eds.), Seoul: Educational Science Publishing Co., 1989. 
• “The Making of a World-class Research University at the Periphery: Seoul National University, 1994-2005,” in Philip Altbach & Jorge Balan (eds.), World Class Worldwide: Transforming Research Universities in Asia & Latin America, Johns Hopkins University Press (in press), which will be out probably July 2007.

A Study of the Impact of Privatization of Universal Access and Social Equity in Higher Education in Korea

Korean higher education has attained universal access in only three decades (an achievement that took the U.S. half a century).  Its rapid transition to universal higher education occurred immediately after, or simultaneously with the swift transition to universal secondary education.  Privatization has made this unprecedented consecutive transition happen.  Indeed, 83% of the national budget for higher education comes from family funds, an unparalleled phenomenon unseen even in America, where the private sectors are far more dominant than the public sectors. More than 80% of tertiary students are currently at private universities and colleges in Korea, compared to only 20% in America.  Many experts suggest that in addition to the American model, it’s very useful to draw on the Asian experience to achieve universal access in higher education by privatization.  Putting forward the Korean experience as an exemplary case is warranted and could be beneficial to other countries. It’s especially valuable because it could provide fertile ground for drawing policy implications for those which approximate the Korean context more closely than the American context. One problem though of using the Korean case for guidance is, for English-speaking readers, a lack of published research on universal access and social equity in higher education. My research will fill this gap.

I plan to answer a series of questions.  One, how has the development of the private sector resulted in a swiftly sequel transition?  Two, what are the effects of privatization on the shaping of universities and colleges as a public good, on the national policies for institutional autonomy and freedom, and on the qualitative improvement of research and teaching? Three, does privatization reduce, or reinforce, social barriers to equitable access to education?  Four, what are the lessons and policy implications drawn from the Korea experience for other countries in their privatization to attain universal access to higher education?  To address these, I will collect and compile a time series data set of the national budgets and patterns of educational expenditures per household on higher education over the last six decades.  In analyzing Korea’s attainment of universal access to education, I will compare the Korean model with Japanese and Chinese counterparts.  I will specifically investigate the ways in which the Korea model can, in addition to the American model, provide alternate guidance to countries relying on the private sector to universal access and social equity in higher education.