33 Percent of SNU Graduates Are Unemployed

Three graduates for each ten graduates of the Seoul National University (SNU), who graduated in August last year and February this year, are in an unemployment status, and one out of the three is preparing some sort of civil service examinations, according to a survey. Additionally, it has been disclosed that the rate of entering graduate schools is lowered to less than 30 percent of the total graduates even though the university claims it is switching to a research centered university with the graduate schools at its center.

According to `the Employment Status of SNU Graduates in 2001` prepared by the university authority and publicized on May 24, and in which 4,177 SNU graduates in August last year and February this year were surveyed, the number of the graduates who were not employed, not entered military services or graduate schools, recorded 1,363 (a share of 33.2 percent). This is an increase of 4.7 percent points compared to the figure of last year, which was 28.4 percent.

The unemployed status of 1,363 graduates can be classified by the colleges as follows; 130 graduates (48.9 percent) among the total of 266 at the College of Law, 156 graduates (37.2 percent) among the total of 420 at the College of Education, 174 graduates (37.2 percent) among the total of 468 at the College of Social Sciences, 91 graduates (35.7 percent) among the total of 255 in the College of Business Administration, and 104 (33.6 percent) among the total of 310 in the College of Humanities.

Among the unemployed status graduate, 462 graduates (33.9 percent) are preparing various civil service examination, which confirms the civil service examination rush in the universities in Korea. The civil service examination-preparing graduates are a ratio of one for each ten graduates of the university.

When the civil service examination preparing graduates are classified by the colleges, the College of Law has 127 graduates (47.7percent) among the total of 266, the College of Social Sciences has 117 graduates (25.0 percent) among the total of 468, the College of Business Administration has 77 graduates (30.2 percent) among the total of 255 graduates. Even the College of Engineering has 26 graduates among the total of 937 graduates preparing civil service examinations, and the College of Dentistry has five graduates among the total of 94 graduates.

In the case of the College of Business Administration 21 masters (13.3 percent) among the total of 158 are preparing civil service examinations, and one doctor of the College of Social Sciences is preparing a civil service examination, according to the survey.

The entrance rate to graduate schools fell sharply with 24.5 percent following 36.7 percent in 2000 and 32.5 percent in 2001, which is a stark contrast to the claim that the university is moving toward a research centered specialized university centered on the graduate schools. Especially, the entrance rate to graduate schools for graduates of the College of Humanities recorded 21.6 percent, and the College of Social Sciences recorded a mere 19.4 percent, which showed the graduate school education is in crisis in the humanities sectors.

The total employment rate including employment, the military service, an the entrance to graduate schools recorded 66.8 percent, which is 4.9 percent points lower than 71.7 percent of the last year. In contrast, the net employment rate, which excludes the military service and the entrance to graduate schools, recorded a 34.4 percent, a slight increase compared to the figure of last year, which was 33.5 percent.

The reason why the total employment rate is gradually leveling down and the net employment rate is leveling up is because the graduates avoid going to the graduate schools and employed in those venture businesses, where the military services are exempted.

However, the net employment rate at the College of Natural Sciences is 14.2 percent, which is not only far lower than the average of the university, but also 7.9 percent points lower than the figure of last years, which was 22.1 percent. That showed how serious the employment problems permeate the natural sciences sector.

Net employment rates of doctors at the College of Humanities and the College of Social Sciences recorded 42.5 percent and 55.5 percent, respectively, which is far lower than the net employment rate of the total doctors, which was 87.2 percent. This also showed the problem of the unemployed doctors in humanities and social sciences sector has reached a serous situation.

In other hand, 571 graduates among the total of 4,052 at the Koryo University were in an unemployed status, which means 14.5 percent unemployment rate and 61.6 percent net employment rate, and 876 graduates among the total of 4,234 at the Yonsei University were in unemployed status, recording 20.7 percent unemployment rate, 52.5 percent net employment rate.

A related person in the SNU remarked, `The graduates seems to attracted to civil service examinations for secure jobs,` and added, `As the time passes, graduates are tend to remain in unemployment status till they have jobs that meet their expectation.`

Dong-Yong Min mindy@donga.com