China Educator Seeks Stronger Ties With Korea
`Korean Universities Need More Classes With English Language Curricula'
By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter
A top Chinese educator in Seoul said his country hopes to strengthen its partnership with Korea in nurturing elite students. Ai Hong Ge, 53, the education counselor at the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China, said the country is working on forming practical and large-scale partnerships with Korean universities in dual degree and co-research programs.
About 34,000 Chinese students are studying at higher education institutes in Korea. The number of Chinese students has increased more than five-fold over the past three years from 6,419 in 2004. Chinese students make up more than half of foreign nationals studying in Korea, according to the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development.
``China is a big country, but not strong. We see developing human resources as key to improving the competitiveness of our country. That’s why we are interested in Korea’s higher education system,’’ Ai said in an interview with The Korea Times.
``There is much that we can learn from in Korea. I hope Korea can help us in nurturing quality human resources,’’ he added.
This year marks the 16th anniversary since the two countries established diplomatic ties. ``So far we have an improved understanding of each other. In addition, the Korean culture wave or `hallyu’ has spread to Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin over the years and this has influenced many students choosing to study in Korea.’’
In accordance with the increasing number of Chinese students, China has seen a growing number of Korean students there. Nearly 60,000 Koreans out of 160,000 foreign students in China study in the country, according to the embassy. Ai said the exchange of students has played a big part in developing Korea-China relations.
To further promote students exchange, the Chinese educator asked Korean universities to introduce more English-speaking programs and dormitories that can accommodate more students from the country.
``Chinese students learn English from elementary school so they have no difficulty in studying in English at overseas schools. However, it is different story in Korea. They need to learn Korean if they want to study here,’’ he said.
More Chinese students are studying at undergraduate schools rather than graduate schools and undergraduate schools don’t provide many curricula in English compared to graduate schools.
He also added that Chinese universities usually accommodate most foreign students applying, but Korean universities allow only limited number of foreigners in dormitories.
Regarding ``illegal students’’ who come to Korea with forged immigration documents and work illegally, Ai requested the Korean government to cooperate in stopping those students.
``Already China has removed a large number of illegal overseas study agencies and it is working to ban illegal students from China in Korea,’’ he said.
``But we also need to think about how those students were able to come to Korea. They came here as Korean Immigration Authority issue visas under the guarantee of Korean colleges. So Korea is partially responsible,’’ he added. Last September, the immigration office caught 320 illegal students from China, according to Seoul Immigration Office.
As for English education in China, the counselor said that many Chinese English teachers are competitive enough to conduct classes in English. Also, he said ``While many native English speaking teachers are working at universities, elementary and secondary schools don’t have many foreign English teachers but China plans to invite more foreigners for English classes.’’
The education counselor has an academic career in North Korea. Graduating from Kimhyeongjik Normal University Pyongyang with an education major in 1993, Ai served in the division of Asian and African affairs for the department of international exchange and cooperation, ministry of education, in China between 1993 and 1997.
He served in the Chinese embassy in Seoul as a secretary between 1997 and 2000 and came back to Korea as an education counselor last July.