Thursday, April 29, 2010

Fairness of State Scholarship for Foreign Students Questioned

Korean officials have ignored their own rules to pick unqualified foreign students for state scholarships in an opaque and unfair practice, apparently customary between embassies and ranking foreign government officers.
These students ― who benefit from the taxpayer-funded program because they are children of influential dignitaries from foreign countries ― have difficulties studying at Korean universities as they are not proficient enough in Korean to understand the classes.
In an ambitious move to make state scholarships international similar to the Fulbright Program, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology integrated them into "Global Korea Scholarship," earmarking 51.5 billion won ($46.6 million) to promote the program as a core project.
However, its fairness and efficiency has been called into question as Korean embassies and the education authority are providing benefits to students who fall short of the minimum standards.
The Korean embassy in Afghanistan last year recommended two children of ranking Afghan government officials even though they failed to meet the minimum qualification: a grade point average (GPA) over 80 percent necessary to qualify for the scholarship program.
The two students, identified by their surname initials "S" and "R," respectively, couldn't speak Korean when they applied for the scholarship and even now have difficulties in keeping up with courses mostly conducted in the Korean language at Keimyung University in Daegu, although they finished the six-month language training course offered by the government.
A Korean embassy document, acquired by The Korea Times, says, "(the two students) are children of high-ranking government officials and our government needs to take good care of them since they could be future leaders, considering the practices of the country."
The fathers of the students were deputy ministers of two different ministries. A brother of one of the students was also a beneficiary of the scholarship program in 2008.
A counselor at the Korean embassy in the country who recommended the two students said, "We just passed the list of applicants, selected by the country's government, to our government. We don't have enough manpower to screen students."
For its part, the National Institute for International Education (NIIED), a government agency supervising the scholarship program, said, "We trust our embassy's network and they pick appropriate students for our program."
A director of the agency also said they were unable to check the qualifications of all the scholarship students.
However, experts and college students say the government should be more careful and make the screening process more transparent for the program to be a success story. Otherwise, it may backfire, they said.
Kim Sung-han, a professor of international relations at Korea University, said it was very wrong to give favors to unqualified children of high ranking officials.
"Even private companies thoroughly screen scholarship applicants to select the best students. The government, using taxpayers' money, should not pick students recklessly," Kim said.
The professor also said that unfair scholarship programs will eventually ruin the image of Korea.
The state program doesn't require applicants to pass any exams or submit certificates of proficiency in Korean or English skills.
Last year, a total of 504 foreign nationals benefited from the program and the ministry aims to attract 700 students this year who will receive money for university tuition, housing and monthly allowances.

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/05/113_65084.html

28 comments:

  1. tsk tsk... yung sa embassy nga natin nakareserve for the descendants of those who helped during the korean war -tiny

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  3. haha.. oo sbi ni ate jesy, lahat yta tyo asar sa embassy dahil dun eh -tiny

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  4. kung asar kayo...paano na ako???? isa akong biktima ng sistema nila. kala ko pa naman pang-3rd world lang ang bulok system! haha. bittersweet ako sa NIIED. thankful naman ako sa paggrant nila ng scholarship sa mga katulad ko. pero, tama rin ba na porke sila ang nagpapaaral sa akin, may kakayahan na silang i-twist ang rules and regulations para makamit ang gusto nila? sa 500 na scholars, ilan talaga sa kanila ang makakapagsabi na gusto nila ang korea kaya sila nag-aaral sa korea? yung iba ngang nakapasa sa SKY univ. ni hindi makapasa ng level 1 ng KLPT... kung sabagay kasi walang silbi ang katulad ko na social science ang gustong i-major. hindi nila ako magagamit para sa pag-unlad ng bansa nila. -kathzikathz

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  5. Tiny: nagtry ba si Jesy na mag apply? yun daw sabi sa kanya?
    Kathz: kalungkot naman...nakita mo na yung this year na application? may 2 ways kasi. yung embassy rec at university rec.

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  6. oo! grabe~! ayan na naman ginugulo nila ang process of application para later on pwede nilang bagu-baguhin according to their needs. kakaasar. ang advice ko sa inyo, mag-apply na lang kayo sa Univ. mismo or POSCO scholarship. may iba pang scholarships e...PM ko sa inyo ang link if you need it. ^^ -kathz

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  7. oo tinawagan daw nya eh, masama nga daw loob nya kasi ang laking tipid nga naman nun tapos ang dami pang slots, naku ate kat d ko nga alam kng makakabalik ako dyan, dapat ko pa naman maabutan si kuya jm pra may unan ako pagbalik ko.XD -tiny

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  9. tinanong ko sa person-in-charge sa NIIED scholars tungkol dun sa univ. recommendation for NIIED...ang sabi nila...wala pa raw sinasabi ang NIIED about that. kamusta naman yun. malapit na ang deadline... (kathz)

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  10. I hate the part na they were supposedly "thinking ahead" giving the reason na magiging leaders sila paglaki. Such prejudice and a great example of cultural insensitivity. Discrimination even!where is the social mobility that they give great pride of! To think that they are NICs... jeez

    and I agree with ate Kaths; how many of them actually wanted to go to Korea to learn! They should improve their system or the Korean taxes would be put to nothing. Such a travesty.

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