The Current State of the University in Korea: An Appeal to the General Education Reinforcement

Lim, Hyun-Chin

Korean Journal of General Education 2012;6(3):283-320.
Published online September 30, 2012.

Hyun-Chin Lim

한국 대학의 현주소: 기초교육의 강화를 위한 제언

임현진

Abstract

This paper puts emphasis on the role of general education to enhance the level of higher education in Korea. Education is the key element of the national competitiveness in the knowledge-based society and one of the most necessary thing to train the knowledge worker is that the universities give more weight to the general education in the college course. However, the importance of general education in Korea has been rather decreased in the global era. Downsizing of the general education is the common phenomenon of the universities in Korea. Above all things, the negative features of the universities in Korea results from the misunderstanding of the general education. Educational authorities in Korea usually understand that the general education is in confrontation with the major education. Especially, neo-liberal thoughts that stress out the practical curriculum in the college course aggravated the trend to make light of the general education. Therefore, I suggest that the stereotype of the general education being pitted against the major education be pulled down and would like to redefine the general education as a universal and comprehensive one for the major education and, in this vein, the future general education must seek both the generality and the speciality at the same time.

Key Words: general education, knowledge-based society, knowledge worker, downsizing of the general education, major education, practical curriculum, generality