Restructuring of colleges

Last year, 560,000 students were enrolled at 339 universities, colleges and junior colleges in Korea. In 10 years, however, the total number of high school graduates will fall to 400,000 at most, forcing these schools to sharply reduce their enrollment, or in the case of less reputable ones, shut down altogether.

The education ministry’s college restructuring plan

unveil

ed Tuesday reflects this reality, intending to slash student quotas by 160,000 until 2023. But the hurriedly made plan has too many problems to be a blueprint that can effectively reform the nation’s higher education.

First of all, the reduction target itself is too mechanical, when considering that not all high school graduates go to college. Given that about 80 percent of graduates entered colleges in 2013, the actual number of college students a decade later should be far smaller, meaning the target should be bigger.

Add to this a possible drop in the college-entrance rate, as seen by President Park Geun-hye’s extolling of the corresponding rate of about 30 percent in Switzerland during her recent visit there, then one can’t help suspect that a simplistic, shortsighted calculation has been made by education bureaucrats.

Equally careless and inept is the core point of the plan, which calls for schools to be divided into a five-tier ranking system, forcing those in the second to fifth categories to reduce their enrollment in connection with to their grades. Yet this system will not be able to

eliminate

the most problematic schools with both substandard faculties and students as early as possible, while driving out schools that are relatively better.

There are too many

corrupt

and worthless diploma mills unworthy to be called colleges in the nation today. What’s needed to treat the cancer patient known as Korea’s higher education system is not a diet but a surgical procedure.

The ministry says it would add a ``qualitative” assessment to the current ``quantitative” criteria in grading schools in consideration of province-based schools that cannot compete with those in Seoul metropolitan area. But who will make these subjective qualitative analyses? Anyone who served as a judge at a kindergartners’ talent contest would know the difficulties in avoiding

controversy

about fairness and equity stemming from qualitative grading.

One can hardly expect the 400-strong committee of professors and businesspeople to which the ministry plans to assign the job to do so.

The government had better consider introducing an agency

exclusively

responsible for such assessments, filled with experts who enjoy a considerable level of public trust, such as the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) in the United States.

We agree with the need to provide additional favors for provincial colleges in order to both seek balanced development among regions and prevent further concentration of everything good in the capital of Seoul and its adjacent provinces, but the ministry should seek different ways to do so from the present methods which will only end up letting bad money drive out good.

President Park should seriously consider setting up a high-powered panel responsible for overhauling the nation’s college education system, which is directly related with its long-term development. That is too crucial a task to be left to education bureaucrats whose foremost concerns are often finding schools that can provide them with post-retirement positions.

※ 다음에 나오는 문제들은 본 기사에 나오는 중요한 어휘들로 구성된 토익, 토플, 텝스 기출 및 예상 문제입니다.

※ Choose the one word or phrase that best keeps the meaning of the highlighted part or fill in the blank with a suitable one.

1.The use of a new miraculous drug has

eliminated

many diseases.

① complicated

② analyzed

③ removed

④ contracted

2. There was very little political

contention

about the need for drastic measures to cope with an unprecedented financial crisis.

① controversy

② confusion

③ enterprise

④ examination

3. They say that he did not hesitate to

her secrets.

① discover

② divulge

③ conceal

④ impose

4.Our own country is considered utterly

.

① submitted

② sublimated

③ wrecked

④ depraved

5. Hair is found

in mammals.

① particularly

② only

③ commonly

④ exceptionally

[해설 및 정답]

1. [번역] 새로 나온 기적 같은 약의 사용이 많은 질병을 제거해 주었다.

[어휘] eliminate : v. (유해한 또는 여분의 것을) 제거, 삭제(철폐)하다(remove, clear away);제외하다(고려하지 않다), 무시하다(leave out , omit, exclude ) n. elimination : 제거(weeding out), 삭제, 배제, 제외); 배출(excretion)

① 복잡하게하다 ② 분석하다 ④ 계약하다; 수축시키다(하다); 병에 걸리다

[정답] ③

2. [번역] 전례가 없는 금융위기에 대처하기 위해 과감한 조치를 취할 필요성에 대해서는 정치적인 논쟁은 거의 없었다.

[어휘] contention : 다툼, 싸움, 투쟁; 경쟁; 논전(論戰), 언쟁, 논쟁(controversy); 논점, 주장

[정답] ①

3. [번역] 사람들은 그가 그녀의 비밀을 들추어내는데 주저하지 않았다고들 한다.

[어휘] unveil : v. (숨은 것을) 드러내다(bring into view, uncover), (비밀을) 들추어내다; 밝혀내다(reveal, make known) n. disclosure : 발각, 탄로, 폭로(revelation)

① 발견하다 ③ 숨기다 ④ 지우다, (부)과하다

[정답] ②

4. [번역] 우리 자신의 나라는 완전히 부패한 나라로 여겨진다. Cf. deprave : 악화, 부패, 타락시키다(corrupt, degenerate)

[정답] ④

5. [번역] 털은 오로지 포유동물들에게서만 볼 수 있다.