Foreign Graduate Schools to be Offered Incentives

Starting from next year, the government decided to grant a great deal of incentives when renowned foreign graduate schools begin operations in Korea.

Masters and doctorate courses that are usually completed during a period of at least two years in Korea will be able to be shortened up to six months, matching the period of foreign MBA courses, which usually end within 18 months.

The Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development announced on the 15th a set of measures aimed at enhancing the quality and competitiveness of graduate schools and to further promote internalization of graduate schools in Korea.

▽Incentives to be Offered

The Ministry will provide various incentives to attract prestigious foreign graduate schools to the country. Once the foreign schools receive permission to operate in Korea as non-profit foundations, they will not be required to buy their own school property, but allowed to rent school facilities. The schools will also be exempt from the obligation to secure income-producing assets needed to operate the school,

The Korean law requires foreign-invested schools to fill at least one-third of its directors` positions with Korean applicants. But the ministry will abolish this regulation.

A foreign graduate school that disbands can now turn over its assets to a third party of its choice.

But a foreign school is obliged to subscribe to guaranteed insurance, and when it disbands, it should pay back debts from local people first.

Foreign graduate schools are in nature non-profit organizations. This they cannot remit money to outside the country but they can remit basic costs and labor cost for the faculty in accordance with a foreign currency management law.

▽Joint Education Program and Shortened Length of Graduate School Programs

The ministry will allow Korean and foreign graduate schools that offer joint programs to confer joint degrees in addition to dual degrees, which are granted to those who complete the joint program.

Foreign schools operating in Korea will be able to shorten the length of programs by up to six months, in light of the fact that some world-renowned schools run 17- or 18-month MBA programs.

Accordingly, Korean schools will be allowed to shorten the length of their graduate school programs by a maximum of six months after a thorough screening process.

The ministry is also planning to support a great deal of the cost for building an education infrastructure, research programs and excellent student recruitment on an annual basis for domestic universities in the national strategic fields of Information Technology and Biotechnology. But it will not provide financial assistance for such fields in high demand as MBA

▽Plans in Progress

Seoul National University has a plan to offer joint MBA programs in collaboration with Stanford, Harvard, and Duke Universities and Wharton School. In particular the university is in the stage of concluding Memorandum of Understanding with Duke University.

Other universities that are planning to run joint programs with foreign graduate schools are Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Yonsei University, Sung Kyun Kwan University, Pusan National University, Kyung Hee University, Ajou University, Ewha Womans University and the Korea Development Institute`s School of Public Policy and Management.

The ministry said that foreign graduate schools of arts such as music, painting and design are likely to find their way to Korea since there are an increasing demand in Korea. To prevent the indiscriminate entrance of educational institutions, the ministry will give the task of selecting successful applicants to a screening committee composed of college professors, entrepreneurs, journalists and government officials.

inchul@donga.com