This photo provided by Kyungnam College of Information & Technology shows its campus in the southeastern port city of Busan.
SEOUL, March 24 (Korea Bizwire) – The number of young Koreans transferring to community college after studying at a general universities is on the rise, data showed Thursday, amid uncertainty over their future careers.
According to statistics from the Korean Council for University College Education, the number of students who entered junior college after graduating from four-year universities stood at 1,770 last year, up 317 compared to five years ago.
The number of such students has been on an upward trend, rising from 1,453 in 2017 to 1,769 in 2021.
Since the statistics do not include university dropouts, the actual number of students who enroll in community college after studying at university could be higher than shown in the official data.
The main advantages of attending junior college include relatively a short education period and easy to find jobs.
The employment rate among community college graduates stood at 71.3 percent last year, higher than that of their counterparts at general universities (64.2 percent).
Colleges also saw the number of older adult students rise to 1,631 last year from 1,559 five years ago.
Among the more notable cases, an older student enrolled in the bakery and barista department 45 years after graduating from high school, and a university professor entered the department of Chinese language.
J. S. Shin (js_shin@koreabizwire.com)
