By Richard Thompson

Indigenous replacements of TOEFL seem like a good idea; on the other hand, Jack in the Box makes an excellent hamburger sandwich ― The Big Cheeseburger ― currently priced at one dollar. The TOEFL is overpriced. Still, in terms of marketing, the indigenous version of the test is a money loser, completely subsidized by the government, and as such, how long can it be sustained?

There is only one man and one woman better qualified in all of Korea to be the minister of education, and that man is the current prime minister and that woman is Chang Sang who received her Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary. Chang's nomination in 2002 for prime minister of South Korea was rejected by the National Assembly on a 142-100 vote.

Ahn Byong-man, current minister of education, science and technology, majored in Spanish language and literature at Seoul National University.

Korea is pushing for a state-developed, standardized English test that will replace English proficiency tests in the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), as well as TOEFL and TOEIC by 2012.

Because the new test is intended to provide a pass-or-fail result for applicants, including it on the annual standardized college entrance exams means students would be significantly deterred from taking private English lessons. However, those students intending to study in American universities either as high school and/or an undergraduate students must meet a higher standard than this ``break-even point for domestic Koreans.''

Studying the inaugural address of President Barrack Obama is the most popular way for Japanese to learn English.

The budget increase from this year's 30.4 billion won to 52.6 billion won next year to support international scholars at Vietnam's request during President Lee's recent visit to Thailand for the ``ASEAN-plus 3'' meeting is a most welcome development.

``SNU should be ranked globally within the top 20 schools in proportion to the size of the economy,'' Minister Ahn said. Income from foreign students is crucial to United Kingdom (U.K.) universities.

KAIST jumped this year from 95 to 69. SNU climbed three places to 47. Since the U.S. Congress passed legislation in 1980 giving universities ownership over their federally funded inventions, schools have collectively earned billions of dollars in revenue by licensing their patents to private companies. And the University of California is a patent powerhouse. Each year for more than 10 years, UC has received by far the most patents among U.S. universities, based on data from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

According to its year-end 2006 report, the university maintained more than 7,000 patents in its portfolio, up from about 4,500 at the end of 2002. In that year, the school earned a record $193.5 million in revenue from patent royalties and fees double that of 2005. Yet The Times of London Education Supplement ranks UCLA at 32, down two places; whereas UC Berkeley is down three at 39. The US News and World Report ranks UC Berkeley at No. 1 in Chemistry, English language and literature, Computer Science and Civil Engineering, while it ranks Harvard at No. 5, No. 4 and No. 16 in those first three Ph.D. programs, respectively, and doesn't rank it in the top ten in the last program.

The Times of London Education Supplement, in ranking the top ten universities in the world, this year included Imperial College London, University College London (separate institutions), Oxford University and Cambridge University in the top five.

This is risible in my opinion. High fee-paying international students are being blocked from starting degrees under a new U.K. visa system.

Students from outside the European Union (EU) starting undergraduate degrees in the sciences at Imperial College London this autumn will pay up to 20,400 British pounds a year in fees. U.K. and EU students only pay tuition fees of up to 3,225 pounds a year but the cost of educating them is much more. At a time of huge financial pressure, it is income of international students that enable universities to climb the rankings.

In Pakistan alone, there is a backlog of 14,000 applicants. Numbers of students from Pakistan may not receive their visas in time to start their studies this year. And that is why the perspicacious minister will ``nudge'' his alma mater SNU to set up a prayer room for Muslim students and pay attention to ethnic concerns. If United Kingdom (UK) universities close their doors to foreigners from the Indian sub-continent, Korean universities may take up the slack.

I had friends among the engineering students from both Vietnam and Pakistan while teaching at Kyung Hee University for two years. They were as bright as my classmates at UC Berkeley.

Overseas students contribute 4 billion British pounds a year in fees, according to the U.K. Council for International Student Affairs.

Richard Thompson is a faculty member at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province. He can be reached at thompson_richard@yahoo.com.