The necessity of CBNU’s globalization
 

  When an evaluation was announced, universities paid attention to it. The evaluation of universities created by Joong Ang Ilbo, which is one of the famous daily newspapers in Korea, is announced every year. When the evaluations are announced, many universities criticize by saying,“Is it right that the press evaluates universities’ worth depending on their taste?” or “The evaluation doesn’t consider the unique characteristics about each university!” Although there were many universities’ criticisms about the evaluations, it was used as good reference data for developing universities. According to the evaluations, CBNU was ranked about 30th in total score until 2010, and now it is ranked from 26th to 29th. Although CBNU raised its ranking, there is an index which is still the lowest and has never changed since 2006. It’s the index of globalization of the university.
  The index of globalization of universities indicates how many students exchange with overseas universities. The reason why this index is important is that Korean university students are inevitably going to compete with overseas students. Therefore, the superior competitiveness is connected with national competitiveness. Because of it, the globalization index indicates if the university has the conditions to create globalized human resources that can compete globally.
  The higher the globalization index of the university is, the more active the students or professors exchange with overseas students. Therefore, when Korean students study in globalized circumstances, they can naturally work in an overseas country as they did in their home country. Because of the importance of globalization, the candidates for CBNU’s 10th president made promises that they will make a globalized university.

 

What is the problem of CBNU’s globalization

 

  There are two weaknesses about globalization. First of all, overseas students prefer studying in universities in Seoul to local universities. This phenomenon occurs because of university’s brand names. According to the data of Center for Ministry Education Institution Information Disclosure, the total number of overseas students has steadily decreased since 2012, and overseas students who study in local universities are dramatically decreasing. However, the number of overseas students in Seoul is increasing little by little. Namely, it is the simple fact that overseas students avoid local universities. Secondly, it is difficult for CBNU to flexibly invest in globalization in comparison with private universities. Private universities can freely invest where they want to invest. However, national universities need continuous financial aid from the government, and they are audited by the government. Therefore, if national universities didn’t receive financial aid, they would quit doing their projects.
  However, it’s too early to be disappointed. An anonymous officer in International Affairs of CBNU said, “Most universities in Seoul are private, so CBNU cannot be reasonably compared with those universities. However, CBNU has its own strong points. CBNU thoroughly handles overseas students in terms of their safety and their education. Most of them are living in dormitories, which provide regular and inexpensive meals, and they can study in CBNU with inexpensive tuition.”
  Also, the number of overseas students is increasing. Kim Chun-hwan, who is an action officer in International Affairs, said, “Although the number of other national universities’ overseas students is decreasing, CBNU’s is increasing. The number of overseas student increased 47% in comparison with last year. Also, CBNU is doing aggressive marketing for attracting overseas students.”

 

The urgent problems in front of CBNU

 

  Chungbuk Time’s 149th newspaper reported about programs that overseas students can participate in(Article title : International Affairs Programs for Foreign Students Need to be Promoted). However, many overseas students didn’t know about those programs. According to the survey, only 16% of overseas students knew about the programs created by International Affairs. Also, a program which was free now requires a fee because of a lack of budget, and lack of participation in the programs by students made running hard them. Hwang Seon-young, an officer of International Affairs, said, “International Affairs is trying to make various programs for overseas students, but we are worried about the participation ratio. The same overseas students who already participated in it participated in the program again.”
  There is another problem. Overseas students are feeling difficulty in listening to courses taught in English. Many overseas students are excluded from team projects by CBNU students because they can’t speak Korean, and they had experiences of discrimination when they got grades. Munkh-uchral, president of the Mongolian students in CBNU, said, “I heard of some discrimination stories from my fellow Mongolians. Among the stories, some students received low grades because they are overseas students. They talked about this with professors, but the professor said the reason were that the students are overseas students and their Korean was poor.”
  The overseas students are also experiencing difficulty in listening to taught in English courses. An anonymous Vietnamese student said, “We registered for a course, but the professor didn’t use English as the main language while lecturing. I was embarrassed.” Although those problems are not disclosed by any index of university evaluation, they should be solved for CBNU to become a real globalized university.
 
 

By Kang Ill-gu

ig33@cbnu.ac.kr