High scores in learning environment, management, student support and educational achievement
The school scored higher than 95 percent in the assessment, becoming one of the 34 universities to receive level A, the highest grade in the evaluation.
The college restructuring evaluation was conducted to improve the quality of tertiary education and deal with the decrease in student population caused by falling birth rates. Over the past four months, both quantitative and qualitative analyses were used to assess the learning environment, school affairs management, student support and educational achievement of 298 colleges in Korea. The colleges received ratings ranging from A to E depending on the summation of their scores in the aforementioned criteria.
To elaborate more on each of the criteria, the learning environment criterion consists of areas including full-time faculty ratio, student-faculty ratio and the tuition-return rate; the school affairs management section is composed of class management and student evaluation; the student support criterion consists of academic support, career counseling, scholarship beneficiary rate and support for business startups; and the educational achievement criterion is derived from the employment rate of graduates and students’ satisfactory rate.
As for Ewha, school authorities welcomed the evaluation results and shared their insights on the successful outcome.
“We believe the school’s pursuit of innovation in preparation for the changing society contributed to the positive result,” said Kook Seung-jin, an official of Ewha’s evaluation team. “Thanks to our efforts in realizing the school’s new vision, ‘Innovation Ewha: Leading Global Excellence,’ the school received one of the highest scores even among the level A universities.”
According to school authorities, Ewha obtained a perfect score in the learning environment criterion. In addition, the school acquired nearly perfect scores in school affairs management, student support and the educational achievement criteria.
While schools that were rated level A are welcoming the evaluation results, some universities claim that the evaluation process had not been completely fair, being rather advantageous to the schools located in Seoul.
Nevertheless, the MOE claimed that the evaluation was conducted by experts in an even-handed manner.
“The criteria were evaluated by experts from universities across the nation and government researchers,” said Kim Hong-oh, an offical from the University Evaluation Division of MOE.
Also, school authorities at Ewha explained that the evaluation was a lengthy process that took place from April to August.
“The quantitative analysis was conducted based on data released by universities over the past three years,” Kook said. “Meanwhile, the qualitative evaluation took place in various forms, including interviews and the assessment of self-evaluation reports submitted by colleges.”
To tackle the excess supply of tertiary education amidst the population decrease, the MOE will limit government funding, national scholarships, and student loans to universities that received a grade of D or E. Also, the ministry will recommend a decrease of enrollment capacity for all colleges that did not obtain level A.
On the other hand, Ewha and other schools that have received level A in the college restructuring evaluation will continue to benefit from government funding, all forms of national scholarships, and student loans at the current level. They will also be exempt from the recommended reduction of admissions capacity that range from 4 to 15 percent depending on the college level announced by the MOE. These universities can voluntarily alter their admissions capacity.
Currently, the evaluation team at Ewha maintains that the school does not have plans to curtail the admissions capacity for the 2017 admissions.
Huh Ryun-jung
ryunhuh@ewhain.net