The Korea Times

Foreign universities fail to draw students By Bahk Eun-ji The government has made significant investments to attract foreign universities to set up schools in its free economic zones, providing them with various tax and budgetary incentives. However, the schools are failing to attract students due to a lack of demand in the regions, according to data provided by the Education Ministry to Rep. Yoo Ki-hong of the main opposition Democratic Party. He is a member of the education committee of the National Assembly. STC-Korea, a campus set up by Dutch education institute STC-Group, is the very first foreign university that set up its campus in the free economic zone in Gwangyang in 2008, South Jeolla Province. It offers a masters degree in shipping and transport. However, it is in the process of closing down its campus due to a lack of students, according to the Ministry of Education. It has failed to fill the student quota for the last five years and filed for closure with the education authorities in May. In a letter to the ministry, Erik Hietbrink, chairman of the board of STC-Korea, said that the school suffered from fiscal deficits for years because its graduate course had not secured sufficient numbers of students for master’s and doctorate degrees. Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU) is also the first German university to establish a branch campus in Busan-Jinhae Free Economic Zone (BJFEZ) in 2011 also failed to fill the quota for graduate students. Only 38 students are attending the course out of a quota of 100. The State University of New York Korea (SUNY Korea) in Songdo Global University Campus (SGUC) offers five courses of both undergraduate and graduate programs. It also enrolled 126 students against a quota of 320. These universities were established under the government’s support by a special law for the free economic zones in 2008. To promote foreign investment, the government eased regulations for those foreign education institutions compared to national ones and offered tax exemptions as well as financial aid. So far, the central and local governments have allocated more than 19 billion won to the three schools. The government is supposed to provide financial aid for five years at the most. An official from the education ministry said that the ministry will soon make a final decision on whether to close STC-Korea. If the ministry decides to close down the school, it is going to leave Korea within five years with little contribution to attract foreign investment or globalization of national education. Despite the current situation, many other foreign universities are still waiting for approval from the education authorities to open campuses in Korea. George Mason University plans to open its campus next year in Songdo.