This work is a handbook of current higher education in South Korea, covering recent controversial issues while offering for readers the basic information and features of higher education. Its seven chapters can be divided into two parts. The first three chapters deal with the background of Korean higher education to enable one to grasp the features of the current system. Chapter One overviews the brief history of Korean higher education since 1945, while Chapter Two gives information on the types of higher education institutions. Chapter Three discusses the college entrance examination system about with which the society has long been much concerned. These chapters provide an understanding of how the higher education has expanded to the universal level and has also faced some specific problems.
The last four chapters deal with the trend of government reform which attempts to solve the problem; Chapter Four examines the specific problems of the gap in the era of the universal stage between metropolitan area universities and other local ones. Chapter Five focuses on the realities and changes of local universities which are much concerned with the gap. Chapter Six refers to several tactics of local universities such as collaboration with industry to train more local talents, and, finally, Chapter Seven deals with college evaluation issues to minimalize the size of the higher education system. These four chapters reveal that the individualization of each local university and restructuring of the higher education system are critical points for local universities to survive in the future.