(EDITORIAL from the Korea Herald on Nov. 18)

Student exodus

Visiting Korea for the first time today, U.S. President Barack Obama will again
be surprised by Koreans' strong educational enthusiasm if he is given a recent
stateside statistical report on international student movements.

The U.S.
Institute of International Education reported on Monday that Korean students
accounted for 11.2 percent of the total 671,616 international students enrolled
at U.S. colleges and universities in the 2008-09 academic year.
The 75,065 Korean students receiving higher education in the United States ranked
third in number, after those from India (103,260) and China (98,510). Their
number increased by 8.6 percent from the previous year. Considering India's
population of 1.2 billion and China's 1.3 billion, Korea's dispatch of so many
students to the United States is certainly extraordinary, especially compared to
the distantly fourth-placed Canada with 29,697 and fifth-ranked Japan with
29,264.
Since Korea moved from fourth to third place in 2001-02, this country has stayed
there. A great disparity remained over these past years as the total number of
American students studying in Korean universities has grown to around 2,000 at
present from 375 in 1997-98, according to the IIE.
Looking at the statistics, we are once again reminded of the disturbing realities
of the nation's education, rather than being reassured of Koreans' lavish
investment in knowledge for the future. The figures demonstrate that many
students give up the extreme competition to enter the most popular universities
here, which requires long and costly private tuition. It also shows that the
quality of higher education in Korea has improved too slowly to inspire the
confidence of ambitious young students.
The U.S. Department of Commerce estimated that the international students
contribute $17.8 billion to the U.S. economy through their payments of tuition
and living expenses. By proportion, Korean students are presumed to be spending
as much as $2 billion a year in the United States. After so much transfer of
money, the serious question of brain drain remains if a substantial number choose
not to return home.
(END)