International Higher Education, Fall 2001

Ethical Practices in the Korean Academic Profession

Sungho H. Lee
Sungho H. Lee is dean of the Graduate School, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea. Address: The Graduate School, Yonsei University, 134 Sinchon-dong, Soeaemoon-ku, Seoul 120-749, Korea. E-mail: <leesh@yonsei.ac.kr>.

The belief is now widespread in Korea that we are in the midst of a wave of moral collapse and ethical confusion. A lack of moral leadership is apparent not only in the government but in industry, the media, and elsewhere. College and university professors have been actively involved in the veritable explosion of interest in the relevance of ethical considerations throughout most sectors and social classes. For example, professors have asked political leaders to consider whether their decisions are taken to benefit their own political interests or those of the people. Business and industry leaders have also been asked by professors to discuss whether environmental pollution is a necessary cost of maximizing profits.

Given the spirited discussions initiated by them, it is indeed ironic that college and university professors have until recently been relatively silent on the subject of ethical questions concerning their own principles, policies and practices. While they have been critical of other professions, they have deflected criticisms of themselves by raising the mantle of academic freedom.

Traditionally, it has been expected in Korea as in other countries that colleges and universities be founded and operated according to relatively high standards of moral and ethical obligations and principles and codes of behavior. Institutions have never tolerated plagiarism, academic sabotage, or falsification of research data. They have never allowed gross abridgements of academic freedom, incidents of sexual harassment, the selling of grades, or the use of physical violence as a means of settling disputes and conflicts in campus.

However, the time has come for serious scrutiny of the ethical posture and behavior of the academic profession itself. Indeed, there are few aspects of contemporary Korean higher education that do not exhibit signs of ethical confusion. On topics as disparate as admissions and graduation, curriculum development and research, faculty recruitment and grade inflation, or external consulting and administration, there are some thorny ethical issues that colleges and universities need to confront.

Perhaps the area in which that Korean higher education is particularly vulnerable to charges of ethical abuse relates to the research mission of professors. For example, some professors are cheating their institutions and the students by pushing for lighter teaching loads so as to devote more time to writing research papers—destined for journals created solely as vehicles for these otherwise unpublishable articles. Many professors are currently grappling with the problems associated with government or private-sector funding of research that arise when a given sponsor imposes a demand for secrecy concerning scientific inquiries. That is a situation completely inimical to the tradition of open investigation and the sharing of research findings so crucial to the discovery of new knowledge.

The faculty recruitment practices at some colleges and universities are another troubling area in need of ethical review. These practices may include the hiring of faculty who are in no way qualified but who are selected because of social connections, monetary contributions, or even academic and social class backgrounds. Another less than totally ethical practice is the failure of some institutions to provide truly open competition for academic positions. Sometimes the department decides on a new faculty member even before the vacant position has been placed on the open market for an official competition.

A third important area in of ethical responsibility has to do with extrainstitutional service. In Korean higher education, two out of three academics now engage in some form of paid or unpaid consulting during the year. And consulting constitutes the primary or secondary source of supplementary income. Although a significant segment of the professoriate engages in paid consulting, most professors try to balance consulting with their teaching, research, and other institutional obligations. However, when consulting activity becomes a top priority for faculty members, they are less dedicated and involved in their teaching, research, and other institutional responsibilities.

The current preoccupation with ethics in the conduct of the academic profession is probably a result of the increased complexity and magnitude of the higher education enterprise. It would be nice to view the concerns as an illuminating exercise, one that will lend support to the collective determination of Korean higher education institutions to pay attention to ethical standards, particularly at a point in Korean history when fears are being raised of a moral collapse in society.

In conclusion, the credibility of Korean higher education rests on the ethical standards of professoriate. Korean higher education must take the initiative in addressing such charges now to avoid future repercussions. Failing to deal with the problems now will only exacerbate them and bring on external regulation and sanctions. The most positive course of action would be to raise such issues openly and aggressively, to promote decision making enlightened by ethical reflection. In practical terms, two basic steps are required. The first of these is to change the criteria by which faculty performance is evaluated. All forms of evaluation—including government evaluation for financial support and institutional faculty evaluation for promotion and tenure—must go beyond merely calculating faculty-student ratios, counting the number of articles and books published, and tallying faculty workload and instead pay more attention to the ethics, values, and integrity of faculty performance in teaching, research, and service. The other necessary step is development of a code of ethics. At present, few institutions of Korean higher education have developed their own code of ethics, including enforcement provisions, for their members.