The Business of Education is Business

It’s often observed that education is big business in today’s South Korea — among the OECD nations the ROK is tops in public and private spending education spending (as a percentage of GDP), though it’s not always clear just what that money is buying as, like any easy to enter industry, education in Korea has a more than its share of hustlers and hucksters. Most hagwon teachers can tell you plenty of laugh-till-you-cry stories of directors cutting corners on kids’ educations in pursuit of a few more won.

Even institutes of higher learning have gotten in on the game, with a growing number in recent years opening up their own hagwons. Now, the Chosun Ilbo reports the government is allowing them to expand into plenty of other businesses as well. I wonder how they’ll do.

From now on colleges and universities can operate department stores, supermarkets, and movie theatres. They can also lend unused land for developers to create cultural, printing and physical education facilities.

On the 31st at a meeting of college presidents in Seoul, the Ministry of Education and Human Resources announced the “Plan for the Elevation of University Educational Power”. The ministry’s plan safeguards the existing system while support for universities will be strengthened and regulations loosened.

According to this plan there will be an increase in schools and educational institutes that will be reclassified as ‘educational businesses’, which will reap profits from their curriculum development. Right now there are 102 prohibited categories of business but in the future 81 of these categories will be permitted with 21 remaining excluded, categories such as lodging, real estate, cigarette vending, games, and drinking establishments. Private universities are required to report beforehand to the government before making any expenditure over three hundred million won, but in the future that will change to one trillion won.

The Department of Education also announced that the 330 private universities (including specialized institutions) will be able to invest up to 5.7 trillion won in stocks and bonds for construction costs. Until now they could only invest at banks. Vice-minister Lee Jong-seo said “We are also preparing a plan to fix the percentage ratio of investments that considers the risks of investing in stocks.”

In order to appraise the content used in education at universities, the Department of Education has decided to investigate into the satisfaction university graduates feel towards their university, and the satisfaction companies feel towards freshman graduates. A system that awards outstanding classes is also being set up. The Department of Education will also recommend that each university make Ph.D theses public to the Korean Education and Research Information Service (KERIS) in order to raise their quality.

Hamburgers: Ads vs. Reality

Hamburgers and fast food are quite popular in Korea, as this page at Galbijim well demonstrates, so if you live in a city of any decent size you won’t find yourself unable to fix a craving. Of course you will find yourself unable to get a big burger just like the ones in the ads, but in what country isn’t that true?

Well, one muckraking crusader from the Sports Seoul decided to see just how badly the burger chains are hoodwinking us.

In the ads for hamburgers, synonymous with fast food, a series of feasts with piles of fresh ingredients are rolling out. When you go into a fast-food chain the first thing that meets your eye is the series of tantalizing menu ads pasted up everywhere.

The menus appearing in these ads float by one shiny ingredient after another and make your mouth water with their bright colors. But this is as far as your imagination on a joyful meal takes you. The hamburger you ultimately receive after ordering is, to use an oft-used expression, the equivalent of a face without makeup.

In reality, recently an overseas photoblog opened a series of photos called “Fast Food: Advertisements vs. Reality” to the sustained, enthusiastic interest of netizens. The advertising pictures of Burger King, McDonald’s, and Subway’s popular burgers are compared instantly to pictures of the burgers as placed into your hands.

Consumers and everyone have understanding and acceptance that the burgers in ads are not exactly the same as the burgers actually being sold. Ultimately, however, when you directly compare the two pictures the inward thought of “Now that’s just too much!” is hard to put away. It’s fine to show some differences due to factors here and there but some hamburgers look completely different from the way they look in the ads.

I wondered how fast food’s country of origin, the United States, was doing in the Korean environment. This reporter, using a similar method to the foreign blog’s, compared the pictures and actual ingredients of the hamburgers sold in fast food places. The result was the same as that of the examples tested on the overseas blog.

The hamburgers pictured in ads appear extremely delicious while the actual burgers fall rather short of expectations. The burgers sold at Burger King, McDonald’s, KFC, and domestic chain Lotteria were no exception. Song Mo-yang, an office worker in his twenties who enjoys eating fast food, said “When you make your choice from the menu the first thing you see is the ads” and “because of the convenience and flavor I look for the burgers but now there are also times I wonder if this is really the burger I ordered.”

One fast food business’ representative said “When the pictures in the ads are shot, the original ingredients are never exaggerated nor are other ingredients included. It’s an ad, so the point is for attractively-formed food to come out and for it be seen with a dramatic visual presentation.”

In the restaurant there are ads making fantastic claims about their hamburgers. There can’t be a hamburger like the ones in the ads but at minimum the hamburgers for sale have to be like the image in the ads. About that, one regulatory board member said “They say the picture itself is different from the real product but with hamburgers it’s difficult to look at it from a truth in advertising law perspective”, adding “to fall into the category of a misleading ad it must include some content which affects the buying decisions of consumers.”

He went on to say that “For advertisement hamburgers, they’re made in the optimum, best condition for taking photos. There’s no way for it not to be different from the actual burgers wrapped up in stores,” adding “For the first to the last bite, the sequence of ingredients isn’t changed and in that way they are hamburgers fit to be photographed. “Food ads are supposed to make the food look good, that makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?”

Soju, beer, and inflation, oh my!

The article translated here is on a subject no doubt near and dear to many of our readers’ hearts — the price of alcohol. Readers without experience of the intoxicating cheapness of Korean spirits may be surprised at the positively Marxist indignation given to a lousy 3-penny rise in their prices, but we think once you try them you’ll see it’s imperative that they be as cheap as can be.

Thanks go once again to the Munhwa Ilbo.

In line with those of natural gas, transportation, and oil, the prices of beer and soju are going up.

With the cost of living rising with them as if in a competition, the shoulders of the common people, afflicted by the severe economic hardship of these times, are increasingly weighed down.

On the third, following business circles, the domestic beer market leader Hite Beer raised production of all of its brands by 1.9% starting today. Following this, the price of Hite bottles (500 ml) has gone up from 923.65 won to 941.2 won. The prices of black beer Hite Stout (1,034.75 to 1,054.41 won) and 330 ml-sized Exfeel (767.42 to 782.00 won) also went up. Regular shops will raise prices by approximately 50 won. Following Hite Beer’s presentation of factory costs OB Beer, second in market share, is expected to follow suit.

A Hite Beer representative said “Due to the recent sharp increase in the price of domestic barley and the multiplying costs of other raw materials, production costs are increasing and so is the cost of beer.”

The representative ‘common man’s drink’, soju, is also showing signs of a price increase. Jinro, leader in the soju market, announced that its factory costs will eventually increase by 30 won per 800-ml bottle. This is due to a rise in the cost of its basic ingredient ethanol. A Jinro representative said “It’s not definite yet” but that “The truth is that because for the last three years the price of soju has not gone up even in the face of greatly increased raw materials costs, well, that’s the reason.” Jinro manager Yun Jong-woong also said at a press conference that he couldn’t deny the possibility of a price hike.

The rise of soju prices began around the end of last year. It was then that Doosan, seeking to defray the cost of the rise in ethanol prices, raised the retail price of 처음처럼 from 730 to 770 won.