By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter
Some 6.6 percent of U.S. doctorate degrees earned by Koreans and registered to the government in the past five years are from unaccredited institutes, a lawmaker said Wednesday. Moreover, at least two of those degree holders are now working as university professors in Korea.
According to Rep. Yoo Ki-hong of the United New Democratic Party, 4,199 people reported their U.S. doctorates to Korea Research Foundation (KRF) between January 2003 and July 2007.
However, after examining their degrees through the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA), 276 of them are said to have earned them from unaccredited institutes. The figure is equivalent to 6.6 percent of U.S. doctorate holders and 3.6 percent of all 7,765 foreign doctorate holders. Among the 276 people, 140 had it in Christianity-related fields. Education administration, hotel management and art sectors followed behind.
Those 276 went to 23 universities. Midwest Seminary of Bible Theology had the most with 39 degree holders while Cohen University and Theological Seminary and American International University (AIU) followed with 38 and 41, respectively. Especially, 32 among of the 41 AIU degree holders are said to have withdrawn registration from the KRF last month, immediately following the crackdown on foreign doctorate degree holders began.
An unaccredited institute of higher learning is a school not approved by the state government as a legal academic institute. Such schools are operated under business licenses only, or black listed for lacking curriculum, but issue degrees or use deceptive advertising about their institutions.
Those school degrees are not approved by the CHEA.
KRF said it will not unveil the identification of the 276 people, but said at least two are working in universities as full-time professors.
Yoo said that he will push for law revision to screen all unaccredited doctorate degree holders.