This report evaluates on the ‘World Class University (WCU)’ project which has been implemented to enhance the quality of research and education in Korean universities by scouting distinguished foreign scholars whose researches were won authoritative awards such as the Nobel Prize. The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology of Korea has invested 165 billion won every year in the project since 2008.
Some problems of the WCU project have consistently been pointed out: foreign scholars’ fail to reach sojourn duration and their lack of research and teaching ability in Korean university environment. However, there has been no attempt to analyze the project comprehensively to find alternatives and solutions of the problems. In this regard, this report deals with the evaluation of the WCU project according to the policy implementation process and suggests the policy implication from the analysis to improve outcomes of the project.
As the results of the evaluation, several drawbacks of the project are found: (i) the decrease of project’s effect due to dispersed support, (ii) the improper principles of choosing participants and (iii) the insufficient verification of foreign scholars’ academic excellence. Based on the in-depth analysis of defects, this paper presents the remedies to maximize the effectiveness and efficiency of the WCU project. First, the investigation of the approach to the project’s goal attainment is required to verify the effectualness scouting distinguished foreign scholars → world class department → world class university. Second, the project needs to be restructured based on outcome evaluation by sub-project types.
Kim SoJeong
A Review of the Food Safety Certification Programs
August 23, 2011
As consumers’ incomes increase, the demand for quality food goods and safer production soars in Korea. And consumer interest in food safety is growing in accordance with the increasing incidents of food poisoning, label-falsification. The Korean government has adopted the certification programs such as GAP (Good Agricultural Practice), HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) to enhance the food safety in domestic level since the 1990s. The certification programs have continuously improved the food safety management systems to ensure confidence in the delivery of safe food to consumers.
The Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forest and Fishery (MIFAFF) and Korea Food and Drug Administration (KFDA) are mainly responsible for the management of the food safety certification programs. The MIFAFF basically handles the certifications on farm level including the GAP, the HACCP for livestock and fishery, and the KFDA deals with those of HACCP in terms of food processing and GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice).
This report addresses an overview of the food safety certification programs adopted in Korea (GAP, HACCP) and suggests recommendations to improve the effectiveness of those programs. First, these programs are too segmented by items, departments and food-chain, besides the standards and regulations of some programs are often overlapped. It incurred the confusion to consumers as well as to producers, and caused unnecessary social costs. It is important to consider integrating and streamlining the certification system. Second, many programs weakened the consumer consciousness of the certifications and lowered the credibility of the products labeled. The government is required to focus on the consumer awareness of the certifications through various outreach programs.
Some problems of the WCU project have consistently been pointed out: foreign scholars’ fail to reach sojourn duration and their lack of research and teaching ability in Korean university environment. However, there has been no attempt to analyze the project comprehensively to find alternatives and solutions of the problems. In this regard, this report deals with the evaluation of the WCU project according to the policy implementation process and suggests the policy implication from the analysis to improve outcomes of the project.
As the results of the evaluation, several drawbacks of the project are found: (i) the decrease of project’s effect due to dispersed support, (ii) the improper principles of choosing participants and (iii) the insufficient verification of foreign scholars’ academic excellence. Based on the in-depth analysis of defects, this paper presents the remedies to maximize the effectiveness and efficiency of the WCU project. First, the investigation of the approach to the project’s goal attainment is required to verify the effectualness scouting distinguished foreign scholars → world class department → world class university. Second, the project needs to be restructured based on outcome evaluation by sub-project types.
Kim SoJeong
A Review of the Food Safety Certification Programs
August 23, 2011
As consumers’ incomes increase, the demand for quality food goods and safer production soars in Korea. And consumer interest in food safety is growing in accordance with the increasing incidents of food poisoning, label-falsification. The Korean government has adopted the certification programs such as GAP (Good Agricultural Practice), HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) to enhance the food safety in domestic level since the 1990s. The certification programs have continuously improved the food safety management systems to ensure confidence in the delivery of safe food to consumers.
The Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forest and Fishery (MIFAFF) and Korea Food and Drug Administration (KFDA) are mainly responsible for the management of the food safety certification programs. The MIFAFF basically handles the certifications on farm level including the GAP, the HACCP for livestock and fishery, and the KFDA deals with those of HACCP in terms of food processing and GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice).
This report addresses an overview of the food safety certification programs adopted in Korea (GAP, HACCP) and suggests recommendations to improve the effectiveness of those programs. First, these programs are too segmented by items, departments and food-chain, besides the standards and regulations of some programs are often overlapped. It incurred the confusion to consumers as well as to producers, and caused unnecessary social costs. It is important to consider integrating and streamlining the certification system. Second, many programs weakened the consumer consciousness of the certifications and lowered the credibility of the products labeled. The government is required to focus on the consumer awareness of the certifications through various outreach programs.
Je Min