New challenges to Korean universities: increase of older students

Abstract

This article explores the implications of the recent increase in older students at Korean universities dominated by younger students. A case study design is used to gain an in-depth understanding of experiences of older students in a Korean university. Semi-structured interviews of twelve older students, three professors, two administrators, and four younger students at the university were conducted for the date collection. The results suggest that the experiences of Korean older students differed from those of counterparts in western countries since academic and extracurricular services of Korean universities were geared towards younger students and thus were unhelpful for older students with multiple responsibilities at work and home. Also, the results show that traditional hierarchical relationships between younger and older students created strains for older students who had to rely heavily on younger counterparts. This study's findings highlight the crucial roles of higher education systems and culture in the experiences of older Asian students.

Keywords:

• non-traditional students
• dropout
• older students
• higher education
• Korea

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Kyungwon University Research Fund in 2010. Also, it was supported by National Research Foundation of Korea Grant funded by the Korean Government (KRF-2007-332-B00368). In addition, this research has benefitted from comments and suggestions by Mr Bryan A. Richards, Prof. Naoshi Kira, Prof. Jihye Lee, and anonymous reviewers of this journal.

Notes

1. In Korea, older students can attain a bachelor's degree by entering KNOU and Cyber Universities, which target older students and do not require students to take the Korean Scholastic Admission Test. In addition, older students can attain a bachelor's degree through the Academic Credit Bank System and the Bachelor's Degree Exam for Self-Education programme.

2. In 2009, the competition rate for day-time courses among younger students for S University was 10.8:1.