South Korea is situated on the Korean peninsula, which lies on the north-eastern section of the Asian continent. The peninsula shares its northern border with China and Russia. To its east is the East Sea, beyond which neighbouring Japan lies.
South Korea’s population is 48.5 milion, with an annual growth rate of approx 0.4 per cent. More than seven million students are currently being educated at secondary level or above in Korea – four million at secondary school, nearly one million at junior college, and a further two million undergraduates and 250,000 postgraduates at university. The majority of the population resides in Seoul and neighbouring satellite cities.
South Korea has a powerful economy, about 11th in the world's GDP rankings. GDP per capita was 10,590 in 2006 (Euromonitor 2006). Korea has very quickly and successfully recovered from the Asian financial crisis of 1997 to 1999. However, economic recovery is fragile and domestic economic confidence has yet to improve.
Koreans have traditionally placed great importance on education. Over 80 per cent choose to pursue for a higher education in Korea. Admission to a prestigious university is considered a key life achievement. Korea is the highest ranked OECD country in terms of the proportion of young people who have completed upper-secondary education.
There is a culture of paying for education. Pre-schools and all schools beyond middle school level, as well as colleges and universities, charge tuition fees. Korea is one of the highest spending on tertiary education as a percentage of GDP amongst the OECD countries. Eighty-nine per cent of the funding for HE comes from private sources. It is also one of the highest proportions among OECD countries of domestic students studying overseas.
Korea has a 6-3-3-4 system: elementary school, middle school, high school and then to universities and colleges. From an early age, students prepare to take the university entrance examination, and the curriculum of most schools is determined by the content of the entrance examination, to a large extent. This has created a thriving private tutoring sector.
Korea has a large HE system and one of the highest spending on tertiary education as a percentage of GDP amongst the OECD countries. There are over 400 higher education institutions. The falling birth rate and an increase in the number of universities have made supply surpass the demand. Cost is not a major barrier for prestigious programmes.
Korean is a main medium of teaching at school and English becomes a compulsory subject from the first grade of elementary school from March 2008. BA degrees require four years and two years for Masters’ degrees. The academic year runs from March to February.
There is fierce competition between overseas education providers, including non-English speaking countries such as China and Japan. However, English-speaking countries are especially attractive because of the importance that Koreans attach to English language skills. These are a significant advantage in the employment market, and a period of study in an English-speaking country is seen as the best way of acquiring this ability.
The USA is the most popular study destination for Koreans, followed by China and Japan. Amongst the English speaking countries, Canada is the second most popular destination after the USA. The high-tech image of the US makes it popular for postgraduate study, particularly for science and technology. Attractive environments make Australia and Canada popular for English language teaching and secondary level education. The UK is popular with more serious students of English attracted by cultural considerations, including access to Europe.
The UK attracts large numbers of postgraduates because of the perceived quality of the higher education system, although the US remains dominant in this sector. Being one year, the postgraduate taught market has been most popular in this market. As Korean parents tend to send their children at secondary level, the numbers enrolled on undergraduate programmes has increased over the past years.
The most popular subjects are: design studies; business; management studies; English studies; economics; theology and religious studies. There is limited interest in the further education sector, with a small market for stand-alone vocational qualifications. The majority of Korean students in this sector appear to be enrolled on ELT or foundation programmes.
ELT is a significant market for the UK, both in its own right and also as a progression route to further and higher education. Korea accounts for 11 per cent of the total student weeks in the private accredited ELT sector in the UK, the globally largest portion of nationality (source: English UK, 2005).
There is also market potential for in-country delivery in the UK higher education sector, as the Ministry of Education's reforms include the allowance of Korean universities to run programmes jointly with foreign institutions. Also, Korean universities and colleges increasingly seek for international partnership in order to remain competitive in domestic student recruitment for less prestigious institutions, while the top tier ones also seek to be globally competitive institutions.
British Council Korea has been working actively to increase institutional partnerships between Korea and the UK both in the HE and FE sectors. In October 2007, we organised a UK-Korea Education Partnership Building Seminar in collaboration with the Korean Association of International Educators (KAIE). The event was attended by over 100 Korean and 60 UK delegates. We also organised a similar event to target Korean vocational colleges. This attracted over 80 participants, including 14 from UK FE colleges, and showcased the UK's vocational excellence with the aim of promoting partnership opportunities with the UK. We have provided market briefings to UK staff and faculty to support their bid projects under PMI2 funding. We have assisted six UK FE colleges to link with their Korean twins for a joint curriculum development project 'Vocational Skills in Action’ as a result of a successful PMI2 bid. As a result, DVDs were produced for specific skills areas and the official project website was launched in July 2008. Twelve colleges, six from Korea and six from the UK, agreed to cultivate collaborations with other partners within the consortium, so as to make the successful partnership sustainable even beyond the project period in March 2009.
To multiply our marketing impact, we are committed to build the capacity of local agents. We run a British Council on-line agents training session every year and we have now 35 agents from 24 agencies who have been trained by us. A list of UK education specialist agents is available on the British Council Korea website.
British Council Korea has an office in Seoul with a thriving English teaching operation with over 3,000 students registered at any one time of the year. IELTS continues to be in high demand from those either wanting to pursue study in the UK or to emigrate to Canada or Australia.
Our current centre opened in January 2004 and offers exhibition / display space, video conferencing facilities, and a dedicated education zone to support our education promotion work. British Council Korea provides information services to students, agents and others, and promotes UK education through visits to institutions and presentations. We also provide liaison and related services for those investigating prospective partnerships between Korean and UK institutions. We also work closely with local educational agents and international officers from Korean universities to maximise the marketing of the UK education sector. We have been providing a training package for local education agents since 2001 and in February 2007 we launched a new on-line training package for them.
Korea has the highest level of broadband Internet connectivity in the world. Over 70 per cent of the nations’ households have broadband Internet access at home. The British Council Korea website attracts, on average, 35,000 unique visitors per month, one of the most popular websites in the British Council network, so the Korean Education UK website has been developed to be the most effective media to promote the Education UK brand messages and provide a wealth of on-line information on study in the UK.
We have developed our alumni network using a website with a searchable database of 2,000 registered members and a bulk e-mailing system. This development has facilitated much closer relationships with Korean alumni from UK institutions.
The Education UK Exhibition in Korea is held in late October every year, with around 70 UK institutions participating. This has been attracting some 3,000 visitors to the event. Korea is an Education UK Partnership supported country and runs the Korea Partnership with market services exclusive to members.
| 
