[Reporter`s View] Increasing `Aimless Study Abroad`

``I want to study abroad. I even broke off a recent marriage date. I will decide the school after I arrive there……`` (28, female, former government official)

``I want to go to a university in the U.S. right after completing high school. My Korean Scholastic Aptitude Test score is not good. Only if have a good Teofl score…….`` (a 12th grader)

You would hear such words frequently these days. The number of those who plan to study abroad has drastically increased.

According to the survey of the Institute of International Education in the U.S., the Korean international student in the U.S. during the school year 1999-2000 numbered 41,910 ranking at 4th, following behind China (54,446), Japan, and India. Compared with the populations of those countries, Korea ranks at the top.

There is no reason to blame those who want to study in nations that have advanced information and technologies. However, it would be a different story if their motifs are from a ``broken heart,`` or wanting ``to escape from the high competition.``

To study abroad without a distinctive purpose, one might end up with a `profitless investment.`

The domestic reality is that 35 percent of doctors are unemployed. The unemployment of the doctors is expected to hike up to 55 percent by 2006.

Most Korean international students wish to find a teaching job or a professional career after completing their doctoral studies. If they luckily become a professor of a university, does it mean `no anxiety, endless happiness`?

Professor A of a local K university had to wander around the high schools and other prep schools to promote his university. By 2003, the applicants to the universities will be less than the assigned entrance number of the new students, which may close some department that attracts few students.

To have a profitable investment effect, students need to cope with what and why they want to study rather than satisfying only the desire to study in the foreign countries.

Jin Mee-Seok Ph.D. warned the side-effect of the overseas-study without a specific plan, stating that ``surprisingly many students leave to study abroad without a detail plan.``

Lee Jin-Yeong ecolee@donga.com