The number of “U-turn freshmen,” who have graduated from a four-year university and re-enrolled in a community college, have increased. (image: Kobizmedia)
SEOUL, Korea, April 28, 2014 (Korea Bizwire) – A study shows that the competition rate for community colleges reached 7.7 to one, meaning only one out of 7.7 applicants is admitted. It also revealed that the number of “U-turn freshmen,” who have graduated from a four-year university and re-enrolled in a community college, have increased as well.
According to the Ministry of Education and the Korean Council for College Education, upon announcing such research results that the competition for Korea’s 137 community colleges was almost eight to one, and the average enrollment rate was 97.9 percent for this year, both slightly increased from last year.
Especially, the number of U-turn freshmen has escalated over the last year. As many as 4,984 who have graduated from four-year universities, 3.8 percent more than last year, applied for community colleges, and 1,283, which is 2.4 percent more than last year, have actually re-enrolled this year.
A director in the Ministry of Education said, “The growing preferences towards community colleges are driven by their relatively lower tuition fees and higher employment rates upon graduation.”
In fact, the average annual tuition of community colleges for 2013 was 5.85 million won, which was 1.48 million won cheaper than that of four-year universities. The employment rate for the same year also differed by 5.6 percentage points, in favor of community colleges.
Applied music and drama were most favored majors in community colleges with the competition rate of 185.4 to one and 112.9 to one respectively. Flight attendant services (59 to 1), creative writing (38.8 to 1), nursing science (32.3 to 1), early childhood education (30.2 to 1), social welfare (27 to 1), and public health (25.6 to 1) followed afterward.
Written by J. H. Kim (jhkim@koreabizwire.com)
Lifestyle (Follow us @Lifestylenews_Korea)
