Doctoral education in Korea: The call for reinvention in a knowledge-based society

ABSTRACT

Korea’s doctoral education system, which began over 70 years ago on the ruins of the Korean War, has experienced rapid growth until recently. Now, it must continue to progress towards a stage of qualitative maturity that shows world-class levels in education and research achievements. Along with dramatic economic and social development in Korea over the past few decades, it seems that the meaning and value of a doctoral degree and the characteristics and composition of students who pursue it have also undergone major changes. Therefore, Korea needs to reinvent its postgraduate education system in response to recent social and economic changes in Korea and around the world. To this end, this article reviews the historical background and main features of the current doctoral education system and suggests some policy implications for meaningful changes.

KEYWORDS:

• Korea
• doctoral education
• higher education
• PhD
• graduate schools

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. While in the 2010 QS World University Rankings, only SNU and KAIST were ranked in the top 100, in the 2021 Ranking, a total of six Korean universities entered the top 100.

2. South Korea’s IMD competitiveness ranking, which was 29th in the world in 2016, has risen to 23rd place in 2021, and its WEF competitiveness ranking has also jumped from 26th to 13th during the same period. (https://www.index.go.kr/unity/potal/main/EachDtlPageDetail.do?idx_cd=1097)

3. The total number of graduate schools includes the number of special graduate schools which can operate only master’s programmes. As of 2020, 795 special graduate schools operate more than 4,317 master’s programmes (KESS, 2022).

4. The specific legal provisions can be found at https://elaw.klri.re.kr/eng_service/lawView.do?hseq=49071&lang=ENG

5. Since 2014, The Korean Research Institute for Vocational Education & Training investigates every year the basic characteristics and career plans of new doctorate graduates. In 2021, of 10,298 new doctorates, about 60% of the total participated in the survey

6. Most universities in Korea allow international students to write their doctoral dissertations in English if they wish. However, since most classes and supervision are conducted in Korean, international students with limited Korean language skills may have difficulty communicating effectively.

7. In the 2019 employment survey of college graduates (KEDI, 2019), the overall employment rate of college graduates was 67.1%, with the highest employment rates in engineering (69.9%) and medical (83.7%) fields. On the other hand, the employment rates for humanities and social science majors were only 56.2% and 63.4%, respectively.

8. According to Baek et al. (2021), the most preferred workplace for doctoral degree holders in engineering was universities (37.9%), while only 19.4% of PhDs aimed to work for private companies or private research institutes.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the research grant of the Busan University of Foreign Studies in 2023.

Notes on contributors

Su Youn Byoun

Su Youn Byoun is associate professor of the College of Mano General Education at Busan University of Foreign Studies in Korea. Currently, she is serving as the director of the International Student Success Center. She has published a number of scholarly papers analysing learning outcomes and college effects on Korean undergraduate and graduate students.