Internationalization of Higher Education and its impact on regional
identity- Focusing on International Programs in English as a Medium of Instruction(IP-EMIs) at leading universities in South Korea –Sae Shimauchi 1

Introduction
The purpose of this research is to examine the socio-cultural impact ofinternationalization of higher education on regional identity with a focus on therole of English as a medium of instruction and communication among international
students. The ultimate goal of this paper is to show the impact of internationalizationof higher education in South Korea as a case study of IP-EMIs (International Programs
in English as a Medium of instruction), which are established in leading universities
in Seoul.
IP-EMIs, in which most classes are conducted in the English language, whichenable international students to obtain a degree with using only English, have
gradually increased in EFL (English as a foreign language) countries such as Japanand South Korea, where higher education was traditionally implemented in the national
language, and been established at “nation-state style” leading universities. The
introduction of IP-EMIs has been discussed primarily with a political and economical
strategic point of view, but socio-cultural perspective of IP-EMIs has not yet beenstudied or discussed.
Taking a constructivist approach for regional integration, Adler and Barnett
argue that peoples’ mobility within the region can facilitate a sense of community,
mutual understanding and collective identity. However, we do not know how IP-EMIs
work in creating a cognitive community within East Asian region. Some scholars in2sociolinguistics, for example, Robert Phillipson, criticize the dominance of English,
proposing the expression “Linguistic Imperialism” because, in their view, English
has became a medium of western culture or value and there are causal factors and3particular interests behind the expansion of English in a neoimperial world . Bourdieu
1

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Ph.D. student at Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies, Waseda University andResearch Fellow at Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
2
Robert Phillipson, “Linguistic Imperialism”, Oxford University Press, 1992
3 Robert Phillipson, “Linguistic Imperialism Continued”, Orient BlackSwan, 2010,
p.207
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discusses language’s symbolic power and Gramsci also discusses his critical thought
about the hegemony of English. According to Gramsci,‘Hegemony’ is used to illustratethat whether or not individuals, instructions or states ‘choose’ (seemingly freely)
to learn, teach or facilitate English, the spread of English is part and parcel of5

unequal power relations. Therefore, English in IP-EMIs cannot be considered only asa medium of instruction, but we must also critically consider the socio-cultural
impact, what English and IP-EMIs bring and what they mean for international students
who study in IP-EMIs. In previous study, political and economic aspects of higher
education has been widely discussed and studied, but there is a need to place priority
on the “social and cultural rationales” and particularly on those rationales thatserve to promote cultural identity and cross-cultural understanding.

6This research will investigate the socio-cultural impact of IP-EMIs on
international students at leading universities in South Korea: Seoul National
University, Korea University and Yonsei University. Socio-cultural impact will be
investigated in terms of the students’ personal experience and motivation for coming
to IP-EMIs, their current experience, degree of mutual/regional/global understanding
and the raising of regional awareness and identity. The research questions would be:
how does IETPs have socio-cultural impact for international students? What are thepurposes and motivations for international students to study in IP-EMIs in the nonEnglish speaking country? How does English as a medium of instruction work as a vehicle
for increasing understanding and appreciation of cultural diversity?

Trends, Changes and Challenges
We have witnessed internationalization and regionalization in higher educationin East Asia. According to Knight and de Wit, Internationalization should be promotedwith “a perspective, activity or program which introduces or integrates aninternational/intercultural/global outlook into the major functions of a university
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or college.” Moreover, internationalization of higher education is “the process
4

Pierre Bourdieu, “Language and Symbolic Power”, Polity, 1993
Peter Ives, “Global English, hegemony and Education: Lessons from Grammsci”, Peter
Mayo, Gramsci and Educational Thought, Wiley-Blackwell, 2010, pp.78-99
6
Kiyong Byun and Minjung Kim, “Shifting Patterns of the Government’s Policies for
the Internationalization of Korean Higher Education”, Journal of Studies inInternational Education, published online 6 July 2010
7
Jane Knight and Hans de Wit,“Strategies for internationalization of higher
education: Historical and conceptual perspectives”, in H.de Wit (ed.), Strategies
for internationalization in higher education, Amsterdam: European Association for52

of integrating an international, intercultural or global dimension into the purpose,8functions or delivery of post secondary education.” The introduction of English asa medium of instruction is one of the major trends of internationalization in higher
education.
Regionalization, on the other hand, is characterized especially by the growing
regional student and faculty mobility, emphasis on regional research collaboration,
university alliance and research networks.

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The growing number of incominginternational students, one of the benchmarks of internationalization of higher
education, is becoming major emerging trend in higher education in the East Asian
region.
In the process of internationalization, we see a rapid increase in so-called“international programs” at higher education institutions in East Asia. Here
“international programs” are those in which classes are conducted in English, andwhich are designed to enable international students to submit their papers in English
and obtain a degree without knowing any domestic (national) languages. In this paper,
they will be called IP-EMIs, International Programs in English as a Medium of
Instruction, are established to attract international students to their higher
education institutes, especially at famous leading universities in this region.
Since “internationalization” has become an important criterion for statusbuilding, such as in international university rankings for leading universities,
universities in East Asia, especially in EFL (English as a Foreign Language) countries
such as South Korea and Japan, have opened up new IP-EMIs to accommodate moreinternational students and bring “internationalization” to their campus. IP-EMIs
have actually facilitated students’ regional mobility among East Asian countries.
These programs can give an opportunity to those who are not so proficient in the hostcountry’s language, such as Korean or Japanese, and enable them study in English,
which is somewhat of an international language.
In recent years, various kinds of regional collaborative programs have emergedin East Asia and the Pacific, such as UMAP (University Mobility in Asia and the Pacific)
and AUN (ASEAN University Network).Currently, discussion is taking place among China,
Japan and South Korea about the creation of Campus Asia (Collective Action for Mobility
International Education Publications,1995, p.15
8Jane Knight, “Internationalization, remodeled: Definition, approaches, andrationales.”, Journal of Studies in International Education, 2004, p.11
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杉村美紀・黒田一雄（研究代表）(2008) 『アジアにおける地域連携教育フレームワークと大学間連携事例の検証』報告書、文部科学省平成 20 年度国際開発協力サポートセンター・
プロジェクト3

Program of University Students), in which all courses will be basically deliveredin English as a medium of instruction. The creation of an Asian version Erasmus program,reflecting the model of the Erasmus program in the process of regional integrationin Europe, is also discussed among researchers as well.
Therefore, examining the impact of IP-EMIs is important not only for each higher
education institute, but also for regional cooperation in East Asia.

Korean context of Higher Education as a case study
This research will examine the IP-EMIs in leading universities in Korea asa case study. The reason I chose Korea for this research is that Korea traditionallyestablished its higher education and academic system with its national language(Korean) as the medium of instruction and it is a comparatively monolingual society,but has recently actively been introducing IP-EMIs.
‘circles’ of English,

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According to Kachru’s three

Korea belongs to the expanding circle of the countries. In

the Korean context, people use English as a foreign language, so it belongs only to
the global use.

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The Korean government released “Study Korea Project” in 2004 and introduced
a funding program to provide financial support to universities offering IP-EMIs. In
response to this policy, universities in Korea began to show great interest and adopted
English as a medium of instruction as much and as fast as possible.

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As statistics

in 2006 show, English medium instruction classes offered at Korean universities are
2.2% of all classes, and the government aimed to increase this to 3.1% by 2010.

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Moreover, the reason to focus on leading universities is because leading
universities, namely SKY universities (Seoul National University, Korea University

and Yonsei University), are the most active in internationalization. And also forregional educational collaboration and cooperation like Campus Asia, these leading
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Joseph Sung-Yul Park (2009), The Local Construction of a Global Language
Ideologies of English in South Korea, Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin・New York

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Kachru, Braj B. 1992. “Teaching World Englishes,” in Braj B. Kachru (ed.) The
Other Tongue: English across Cultures. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois
Press
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Yasutaka Yano,“World Englishes in 2000 and beyond”, World Englishes, Vol 20, No.2,
2001,pp.119–131
13
Kiyoung Byun, Huijung Chu, Minjung Kim, Innwoo Park, Suhong Kim and Juyoung Jung
(2010), “English-medium teaching in Korean higher education: policy debates andreality”, Springer Science + Business Media B.V., published online 30 November 2010
14 Kiyong Byun and Minjung Kim, “Shifting Patterns of the Government’s Policies for
the Internationalization of Korean Higher Education”, Journal of Studies inInternational Education, published online 6 July 20104

universities are more feasible and realistic actors than other institutions in termsof management and quality assurance.

Research Questions and Methodology

First of all, this research tries to find out the purposes and motivations
for international students to study in IP-EMIs in South Korea. It will also examine
their current experience in IP-EMIs, focusing on the role of the English language:
how does English as a medium of instruction work as a vehicle for increasing
understanding and appreciation of cultural diversity? Isn’t it an agent ofwesternization? Don’t international students just use IP-EMIs in East Asia asa “stopover station” of brain train to the English speaking countries?
This research takes qualitative research method. It reveals details of
the socio-cultural impact of IP-EMIs by semi-structured interviews withinternational students from the East Asian region who studying abroad at IP-EMIssuch as the Graduate School of International Studies (SNU, KU and YU), The Divisionof International Studies (KU) and Underwood International College (YU).
The author implemented semi-structured interviews with both closed- andopen-ended questions. English, Japanese and Korean were used in the interviews.
The length of interview varied from 30 minutes to 75 minutes each depending on
informants. The author contacted the informant with a snowball method andinterviewed 23 international students from East Asia (ASEAN members, Japan, China
and India); 8 Japanese, 7 Chinese, 3 Thai and 1 each from Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam,
the Philippines and India. All interviews were recorded, transcribed and coded.

Findings
1. Negative and Positive Motivations
For the first research question: What are the purposes and motivations forinternational students to study in IP-EMIs in Korea? This study found both negativeand positive motivations. Some students wanted to pursue their education in English
native speaking countries such as the US, but they couldn’t go there, because of
economic and academic reasons. So sometimes Korea was not the first priority, it might
be said that IP-EMIs in Korea are still in the periphery of the US academic system.
-“There was no enough time for me to study TOEFL or GRE, so that’s why I came here.”(Z, SNU GSIS)
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-“I could not go to America so I came to South Korea. Compared to going to US, Japanand Korea are feasible choice.” (K, SNU GSIS)As positive motivations, some students mentioned that the emerging importanceof Korea or Asia. Some actually mentioned that they shared the same value and culture,or they had similarities, so that’s the reason they came to Korea and decided to
study and stay here.
-“Korea-Philippines relations are getting stronger…I saw the opportunity
regarding this one. Why not US…I think it’s overrated. Everyone wants to go
there, and I don’t want to be the one, I always want to be a different”. (E,KU GSIS)-“I think it’s more important to go to quality university …the best university
in that country rather than just the language (English) or America”. (M, SNU GSIS)-“Because here is Asia, one of the Asia….It’s quite near to me”. (E, KU GSIS)
Many students also talked about the advantages to learning two languages,

English and Korean. The international students who are coming to IP-EMIs havesufficient levels of academic English proficiency, so they think that the Korean
language can be an additional asset they can get during their study in IP-EMIs.
-“At language level, of course it’s advantage. I got to speak 2 languages at thesame time, compared with the universities in USA”. (W,UIC YU)-“English is the basic, but if you can have Korean skill, that’s will be big plus
for you”. (A, GSIS SNU)

2. IP-EMIs Create the New Arena?
The interview revealed that IP-EMIs in Korea can provide an arena where
everyone can communicate on an equal basis. Some students are critical about thatpeople in this world too much admire the native speaker. One student said that there
is a wall between native speakers and non-native speakers.
And since now his/her classmates are in Korea, the student proposed that they are
all in the same position as international students and students feel they can talkequally.
-“Even though some people speak like native speaker, I would say, so what? It
doesn’t mean that that person is smart. Because we are not native speaker ofEnglish, we can express our thought more understandable”. (H, KU GSIS)

6-“There is the wall between native speakers and non native speakers, so if I am
in USA, I think I can only communicate with Asian people. Since we are in Korea,
we are all in the same position as international students and I feel we can talkequally”. (T, KU)

3. The Role of English for the International Students in IP-EMIs
English has been described as the de-facto established dominant (common)
language. Some students said English is the basis for one to survive in international
life and some students refer to English as an international language, global language
or universal language. One of the interesting discourses from students is that English
is like a make-up and Korean is like an accessory. It means English is something you
must do, like a make-up, but you wear an accessory (=Korean) when you want to look
more gorgeous. The Korean language seems definitely a plus factor for students who
study in IP-EMIs in Korea.
-“English is the basic, basic for you to survive in international life, but if
you can have Korean skill, that will be plus for you”. (A, SNU GSIS)-“English is like make-up and Korean is like accessory. Make-up is something you
must do, but you ware accessory to make you look more gorgeous”. (S, YU UIC)-

“Is it too elegant if say it’s universal language, but it’s language for everyone,right?” (E, KU GSIS)

4. The Power of the “People”?
National factors such as interests in the Korean culture, Korean language,
business and society have also been studied in previous research, but the influenceof Korean friends is considerably strong. International students who are currently
enrolled in IP-EMIs in Korea met Korean friends at home university, which is alsoa leading university. These universities are also internationalized and have many
international students. On the other hand, some students met Korean friends inprevious experience in studying abroad in high school or undergraduate school,especially in English speaking countries such as the US, Australia, New Zealand andCanada.
5. Model of Student Mobility
Many students interviewed have extensive international experience including
studying abroad. One group of students has study abroad or working experience inwestern countries (English speaking countries) and decided to come to Korea after7

those experiences.
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New Zealand (high school) → Australia (Undergraduate) → Korea-

Australia (as an exchange student) → China (language learning) → Korea-

Canada (as an exchange student) → Iceland (working) → Korea
Surprisingly, some students have study abroad experience in another northeast

Asian countries like Japan or China and came to Korea afterwards. There were also
three students who applied to IP-EMIs both in Japan and Korea, and eventually cameto Korea.
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Studying abroad in China → Korea-

Studying abroad in China → Korea-

Studying abroad in Japan → Korea-

Applied to Japan and Korea → Korea (3 students)

6. IP-EMIs Open the Door?
The most cases, even though they are interested in Korea, their language
proficiency is inadequate to be enrolled in academic programs in Korean. So English
enables International students to study in Korea and experience the new culture.
-“I get to love Korea starting from English program (IETPs) …..If you are stopped
with linguistic barrier, you will lose a lot of opportunities. English program
bridge the foreigners to learn the language”. (E, KU GSIS)-“Besides, I can learn Korean through language learning, if I speak in Korean,
Korean people don’t consider me as foreigner. This taught me a lot of things about
Korean culture and society”. (S, UIC)

Conclusion
This paper at this moment can provide four tentative conclusions. First, somestudents who have high English proficiency still think that English speaking countries
are the desirable destinations for studying abroad, but these interviews reveal that
there is an emerging recognition of the importance of Korea and East Asia as a region.
Second, the influence of people the students met in the other countries and regions
is quite strong. It might enhance the regional identity or the awareness as Asian
citizens. Third, to be able to learn the Korean language considered an advantage eventhough they are studying in English speaking university communities. English isconsidered as a de-facto international language, the basic skill and most accessible8language for most of the students, but Korean is meaningful for their culturalinterests and capacity building. And finally, IP-EMIs work as a core of student
mobility in East Asia and offer a window on a new culture. IP-EMIs, in fact, alreadyenable international students to move around the world and the East Asian region.
They do not work just work such as a “stopover station” of brain train to English
speaking countries, rather they create a place to connect people to communicate in
the same language and build a network among international students with various
backgrounds.
We can never emphasize too much the importance of education in aninternational context, IP-EMIs (International Programs in English as a medium of
instruction) included.

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