Korean Educational Development Institute(KEDI)

A Study on Analysis of the Labor Market Performance of the Korean Higher Education System

and Its Improvement Strategies

As OECD considers higher education reform to be a crucial national agenda in responding to socioeconomic changes, it supports its member countries’ efforts to pursue higher education reform based on reviewing policies regarding labor market performance through [Enhancing Higher Education System Performance Project]. Planned in connection with this OECD activity, this study was conducted to address the following research questions; (1) What is the current status of the labor market performance of the Korean higher education system and what are its characteristics and problems? (2) What should be improved and how should it be improved in order to enhance the labor market performance of the higher education system? When addressing the second research question, the factors affecting the labor market performance are divided into national policy factors and internal institutional factors that influenced the process of carrying out the tasks and their problems and issues were analyzed. This study is differentiated from the previously conducted studies which had only focused on employment outcomes. It defined the concept of labor market performance of higher education as competency outputs meaning cognitive and affective competencies accumulated by receiving higher education and employment outcomes directly related to employment or level of wage.