Schools near Seoul, small colleges dominate for job placement
Graduates from universities with fewer than 1,000 students have a better chance at finding jobs once they’re on the market, according to a study by the government’s Korean Educational Development Institute of four-year secondary educational institutions and their graduates in 2006. A full 70.4 percent of graduates from schools with fewer than 1,000 students found employment immediately after graduating, whereas 64.2 percent of graduates from schools with 3,000 students or more went straight to work following graduation. Universities with enrollments between 1,000 and 3,000 students saw their graduate employment rates at between 68 and 69 percent. Graduates from schools in the greater Seoul region found employment at levels sometimes more than 10 percent higher than those at schools located in the provinces: 70 percent of graduates from schools in Seoul, 70.2 percent of graduates from schools in the Chungcheong provinces, 66.2 percent of graduates from schools in Gangwon, 65.7 percent of graduates in the Gyeongsang provinces, and 58.6 percent of graduates from schools in the Jeolla provinces found employment. It would seem that the farther you are from Seoul, the harder time you are going to have finding a job after graduation. Graduates from schools of the same size are in a better position to find jobs if their schools are in the capital region, unless they are from small colleges, in which case the opposite is true. Large schools of more then 3,000 students in the capital region see 75.2 percent of their graduates find jobs, but only 59.7 percent find jobs if they’re from schools elsewhere that are the same size. On the other hand, 71.7 percent of graduates from schools in the provinces that have less than 1,000 students found employment during 2006, while only 68.2 percent of graduates from schools of the same size located near Seoul found employment."Small schools in provincial regions seem to be producing more employable people because they are better at specialization and meeting the needs of their locales," said institute official Im Hu-nam.
