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October 15, 2008
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| Yale University President Richard Levin said Korea would be making a mistake if it tries to equalize higher education by diluting the quality of its best schools.During a wide-ranging interview with the JoongAng Daily’s executive advisor, Dr. Charles Cholsoo Lho, Levin said much of post-World War II Europe sought egalitarianism but ended up with something less.Instead, he said, Korea’s premier universities, such as Seoul National University, should be nurtured, not neutered. “I would hope in the process of consolidation and shrinkage, there is not any effort forced on the sector by the government that will dilute the quality of top institutions,” he said. He said different levels of universities “make college accessible to students of different ability levels,” adding that forced homogenization of the quality of institutions never benefits a country’s future. Levin singled out Germany as a nation that has taken steps backward in promoting egalitarianism by turning top institutions into state-owned universities. Where Germany once had several top-rated universities, fewer now exist. What is best about Korea, Levin said, is that it has much to build upon. Every year, Yale faces scores of applications from highly qualified Koreans, he said. Based on grades and entrance exams, nearly all are on an Ivy-League level. “The No. 1 asset of Korean universities is the quality of the students,” said Levin. Why do some get in while others don’t For undergraduates, Levin singled out one quality: “Leadership.” Levin noted that Yale’s own strength also comes from its competitive faculty. At Yale, he says the formula has been tough but simple: To build its undergraduate program, Yale makes every professor, no matter how exalted, teach at least one undergraduate course. “We simply won’t compromise,” Levin said. That can be costly, as many top academicians want to do research, not teach. But to build Yale into the institution it has become, no exceptions have been made, not even for Nobel laureates, Levin said.Levin, a well-respected economist, also shared some thoughts about the economy. Asked “what went wrong” with the U.S. financial system, Levin said, “Leverage, leverage, leverage. About three times too much.” “What went wrong was essentially not enough attention on the part of the government to excessive leverage built up not only in the housing sector but throughout the economy,” he said. And Levin wasn’t too impressed with the U.S. bailout proposal.“Actually, $700 billion is not nearly enough,” he said. “If you look at what it has taken to rescue a failing banking system, it’s much more often been 20 or 30 percent of GDP. And $700 billion is 5 percent of U.S. GDP. It’s got to be way more than that.” By Ser Myo-ja Staff Reporter [myoja@joongang.co.kr] |
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