Historical Development and Desirable Direction of Accreditation System in Higher Education
In: Korean journal of policy studies: KJPS, Band 2, Heft 0, S. 158-168
ISSN: 2765-2807
The higher education has explosively expanded since 1945; however its quality has not caught up with its quantitative growth. This article deals with the 'accreditation system in higher education' as an institutional device that may solve that kind of quality problems. The accreditation of higher education in Korea so far has developed along three different stages. First, from 1945 to 1971, the officer-monopolizing accreditation was carried out by the Ministry of Education. Second, from 1972 to 1981, a group of expert officers and scholars did the accreditation job as higher-education reform program. And third, from 1982 up to now the self-evaluation has been carried out by an autonomous body composed of universities and colleges. In order to make it possible for the accreditation system in higher education to successfully do its own function and to be institutionalized this article proposes prescriptive models-namely accreditation-institutes model and process model-which can improve and/or supplement the existing accreditation system.