English-medium Instruction in Japan, South Korea, and Mongolia – Analysis on policies and practices in private universities

• In Event: Asian comparative international studies

Proposal

Perspectives:
English Medium Instruction (EMI), as Oxford Center defines, is “the use of the English language to teach academic subjects in countries or jurisdictions where the first language of the majority of the population is not English” (Dearden, 2014; p. 2). EMI is spreading rapidly throughout the non-Anglophone academic world and is becoming a popular vehicle to internationalize institutions to better prepare domestic students for their employment and to attract more international students in order to sustain the universities. This is a growing global phenomenon in all phases of education as ever more universities rush to offer EMI in both graduate and undergraduate programs (Macaro, 2017).
In internationalizing higher education, Japanese universities utilize the main internationalization strategies of recruiting international students and increasing the number of EMI courses (John et al., 2011). In 2015, about 30 undergraduate universities and 70 graduate schools offered EMI degree programs in Japan (Brown, 2017). Literature indicated various factors for Japanese EMI initiatives from geopolitics, diplomacy to international competency and preparing Japanese human resources (global jinzai) with high English language skills and global scale knowledge and abilities.
Since the 1980s, higher education institutions (HEIs) and individuals in South Korea have been actively engaged in international activities, such as study abroad, student and faculty exchanges, and partnership agreements with overseas universities. The use of the English language was one of the important factors for such international activities. English became a necessary tool to survive in competitive international markets (Shin, 2007). During the 1997 financial crisis, the government of Korea proposed a shift to a knowledge-based economy and has pursued several projects as part of its plan to internationalize universities (Kang, 2018). As of 2011, 30% of all universities in Seoul metropolitan area offered EMI courses while the percentage of EMI courses in other areas was 10% (Kim, 2017).
Following the global trend of internationalization, many Mongolian HEIs plan to increase their EMI courses and programs in order to increase the quality of programs and improve their competitiveness, and ultimately to become internationally visible at least in Asia. Currently, national and private universities in Mongolia offer around 385 EMI courses (author). However, despite a handful of private universities, opportunities to earn academic degrees in English are limited.

Purpose:
This study aims to explore the driving factors behind the EMI and its implementation in Japan, South Korea, and Mongolia. In order to reach this research goal, EMI policies and practices at two private HEIs from each country are analyzed and compared drawing on “Top-down, Bottom-up, or Sideways” model (Rinehart, 2017) to understand how the government, ministry of education (top-down), faculty members’ initiatives, requests, and feedbacks (bottom-up), partner institutions and various university rankings (side-ways) have influenced and/or are influencing these private institutions to adopt and implement EMI policy.

Methods:
This qualitative multiple cross-case study explores the EMI policies and practices at six private universities in the three countries. In addition to documentary data, interview data are collected from 45 faculty members, deans and senior administrators of EMI programs to provide insights into the differing approaches and driving forces behind the EMI and faculty members’ participation in EMI-related decision-making process.

Conclusions:
Based on the documentary and interview data, the empirical study provides different insights into the objectives of EMI policy at national and institutional levels. The analysis reveals several common underlying themes in the cases of Japan and South Korea. At the national level, the governments of the countries provide financial and political support to both of their national and private HEIs to internationalize and perform higher in the world higher education market due to many driving factors. At the institutional level, for instance, the cases of South Korea disclose that small-sized private universities outside the Seoul area have been struggling to recruit students from the even domestic market because of the critically low level of enrollment of university-age students. Some see that opening EMI programs to attract international students may solve this problem. However, this is not an easy task. The case of Mongolia tells a completely different story. There is no such support from the government. In some cases, private HEIs move ahead of the national universities.

Significance:
By highlighting the difference in driving forces, factors, approaches of the two developed and one developing countries within the same region, this study will contribute to comparative higher education and as well as to the body of knowledge in the fields of policy on EMI. It is hoped since EMI is a major component of internationalization of higher education (IoHE), this study will add additional evidence to the broader literature on the IoHE in non-Anglophone countries, particularly as it relates to Japan, South Korea, and Mongolia.



References:
Brown, H. (2017). Why and Why Now? Understanding the Rapid Rise of English-medium Instruction in
Higher Education in Japan. Journal of International Studies and Regional Development. Vol.8.
Dearden, J. (2014). English as a medium of instruction - a growing global phenomenon. British Council.
John, D.P., Roberts, A., Cho, Y.H., & Ching, G.S. (2011). The Internationalization of East Higher
Education: Globalization’s Impact. Palgrave Macmillan.
Kang, K.I. (2018). English-Medium Instruction Policies in South Korean Higher Education. Working
Papers in Educational Linguistics. Vol.33(1), 1-22.
Kim, E.G. (2017). English Medium Instruction in Korean Higher Education: Challenges and Future. In
B.Fenton-Smith, P.Humphreys, and I.Walkinshow (Eds.), English Medium Instruction in Higher Education in Asia (pp.53-69). Springer International Publishing AG.
Macaro, E. (2017). English medium instruction: Global views and countries in focus. Language
Teaching, 1-18.
Rinehart, M. (2017). English as a medium of instruction policy and practice in Ukraine and Kazakhstan:
Bottom-up, top-down, and from the side. Oral presentation at 61st Annual Conference of Comparative and International Education Society, in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Shin, H. (2007). English language teaching in Korea: Toward globalization or glocalization? In
J.Cummins & C.Davison (Eds.), International handbook of English language teaching (pp.75-86). New York, NY. Springer. 6.

Author

• Sainbayar Gundsambuu, Osaka University