After Decades of Building Colleges, South Korea Faces a Lack of Students

David McNeill:

It has become something of a joke here. At the same time President Obama is lavishly praising South Korea's education system, South Koreans are heaping criticism on it.

In speeches about America's relative decline, Mr. Obama has repeatedly singled out South Korea's relentless educational drive, its high university enrollment, and its steady production of science and engineering graduates as worthy of emulation.

His South Korean counterpart, meanwhile, warns of a glut of university graduates and a work force hard-wired to outdated 20th-century manufacturing skills. "Reckless entrance into college is bringing huge losses to families and the country alike," said President Lee Myung-bak of South Korea recently.

Mr. Lee has raised eyebrows, and hackles, by suggesting that fewer people should go to college from a population of 50 million that sustains 3.8 million undergraduate and graduate students.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at December 2, 2011 1:36 AM
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