SOUTH KOREAN HIGHER EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT TRENDS IN THE CONTEXT OF GLOBALIZATION AND REGIONALIZATION

In this article, the author outlines the key higher education development trends in South Korea in the context of globalization and regionalization. The influence of globalization processes on the higher education development in the countries of the Far East as exemplified by South Korea has been identified and studied in detail. The article features the specifics of internationalization process and determines its types. Prioritized is the statistical data obtained from participation of the South Korean students in the academic mobility programs due to the opportunity to adequately assess such processes in the entire region rather than just one country. The research results have analyzed the specifics of regionalism in the higher education and suggest a clear idea of how it differs from the internationalization process. The author has researched the influence of the union processes on the European Union and the education policy of the ASEAN member states. The article dwells on the Association achievements in the higher education area and highlights the advantages of the above. The article is focused on the economic policy of the South Korean Government and the strategy of further financing and development of the area. It has been noted that there is direct correlation between the education quality and the invested financial resources. The author further analyzes the state policy in the area of continuing education or lifelong learning and gives a general description of the problem as well as singles out the main types of the educational institutions offering knowledge.

It is worth mentioning that the country's economy is aimed at in-depth scientific researches and extension of the higher education space redesigned as knowledge economy. Thus, considering Ukraine's integration into the world educational space and endeavor to learn the best practices, the positive experience of South Korea may foster qualitative transformations in the higher education of our country.
Analysis of the latest researches and publications. Analysis of the scientific works of the domestic and foreign researches, statistical data, reports and official online resources of the Government has enabled the author to characterize the individual trends in the higher education of South Korea and explain the reasons for their emergence.
In particular, "European Policy of Higher Education" Monography by H.V. Khoruzhyi [3] reviews the historical dimension of development and operation of the higher education institutions both in the European Union and Ukraine; uncovers the nature of the European education policy and highlights the key directions of its further advancement.
O. Shestak [9] devoted his scientific investigation to researching the trends of the professional education and science development in the countries of the Far East.
The domestic scientist Y. Tovkach [12] who studied the educational system in general in addition to higher education provided the key findings in his "South Korean Higher Education System (Late 20 th Century): Establishment, Development and Modernity" scientific paper.
The thesis of Australia scientist S. Soongsawang [6] introduces the term of higher education regionalization, characterizes the education policy of the ASEAN member states (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations), and explains the concept of harmonization in the higher education sector in the countries of the Far East.
The regionalism trend is depicted in the joint work of M. H. Chou and P. Ravinet [7] entitled "Regionalism in Higher Education." The internationalization term is defined by Y. O. Nikolson [1] during his speech at one of the higher education institutions of Kyiv. In addition, internationalization process is reviewed in "Higher Education Internationalization as University Development Factor" paper by O. Nitenko [15] as the key trend of the modern higher education.
The information on financing of the South Korean higher education system is supported by the reports and official statistics. "ASEAN +3: Key Factors of Cooperation and Development Prospects" paper by I. P. Serhun [5] may be also a valuable source because it reflects on the economic aspects of the higher education development in the region.
However, the trends of higher education development in South Korea are still lacking the thorough scientific research and require further study.
The purpose of the article is to conduct the evidence-based analysis aimed at studying the peculiarities of the higher education in South Korea and highlighting the key trends of its development under globalization and regionalisation. The obtained results will enrich Ukrainian educational science with new knowledge on the subject mentioned above.
Main results. Starting from the late 20 th century, the main challenge of the society has been globalization fostering the world economic, political, cultural and educational unification. It shapes the world trends in higher education development the most notable of which is internationalization. According to Swedish Professor Y. Nikolson, internationalization is the processes of achievement of international, intercultural and global scale by the higher education the main purpose of which is to enhance the world quality of the higher education [1].
Internationalization of the higher education institutions may be conveniently divided into the two types: external and internal. The first type presumes transfer of the new educational trends and services to the foreign higher education institutions under various international cooperation agreements. The second type is meant to create its own domestic corporate culture that would encourage the ambitious youths to participate in various international projects, researches and programs.
According to OECD, the number of students taking part in the international mobility increased by 2% within 2010-2017 [2]. The students from the Southeast Asia comprise the largest group of those studying at the higher level programs, they account for 56%.
The regionalization processes including the education are equally evolving in the modern world. Starting from the late 20 th century and considering a range of economic and social factors changing the world, the European political and scientific community has started the process of education modernization in the area of improving its competitive ability in the European region. On May 25, 1998, the Ministers of the leading European countries held a business meeting dedicated to the future of the European education in Paris where they laid the foundation for further development of this issue in a larger group [3].
The meeting resulted in signing the Sorbonne Declaration proving readiness of the politicians to create the Unified space of higher education.
After signing of the Bologna Declaration in 1999, the educational space of the European countries has considerably changed. The unifying processes in Europe have contributed to formation of a joint scientific educational space by means of establishment and implementation of the unified criteria and standards in the higher education area for unification purpose [4].
The unifying processes in Europe, as a response to the globalization challenges, were carefully analyzed by the world. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is one of the organizations of this kind operating in the Far East. Established in 1967, the Association's first endeavor was economic development and wellbeing of the member states. It was early 21 st century when Europe faced the so-called Bologna process that it became clear that no great economic results could be achieved without paying the due attention to the education quality and the level of education of the people overall.
The Association's key objective has been to create the Free -Trade Zone with the member states and their partners. Because the region includes the countries with different economic development level, the most developed countries within the Free -Trade Zone have an opportunity to facilitate and promote cooperation under the conditions favorable for all members. Consequently, the ASEAN has entered into the treaty with China, Japan, India and South Korea outside the Association.
It is important to emphasize the role of South Korea as a strategic partner of the ASEAN that is influential enough to maintain security in the region in addition to largely steering the economic situation. The first Cooperation Agreement with the Association was signed in November 1989, while South Korea acquired the partner status in July 1991 [5].
It should be noted that the Association cooperates with South Korea, China and Japan most of all, as proved by the highest socio-economic achievements. Those countries are the leaders in the area of economy, education, medicine, politics and security.
One can say that the modern trans-border educational policy in the South East with essential support of the countries like China, South Korea and Japan is not only aimed at accelerating the economic growth, but also endeavors to address multiple political and social challenges of the ASEAN member states.
At the same time, starting from the 90s of the 20 th century, the ASEAN member states were enjoying substantial achievements in the higher education of the region, including: -in 1995, ASEAN University Network (AUN) was established as a result of meeting of the specialized Ministers after a number of contracts were signed by the presidents and rectors of the universities in the member states.
-in 2005, the decision to convene the routine meetings of the ministers of education of the ASEAN member states was made and signed, and the directives of regional cooperation in education area were approved [6].
Today, the network plays an important role in higher education and science development.
At the university level, the institutions (departments) are established to plan and exercise the work associated with the academic exchange of professors and teachers in addition to student youth of the higher education institutions; monitor the higher education quality; encourage efficient cooperation and distribution of information among the university network, and hold conferences, trainings and workshops within the frames of joint scientific researches [6].
The next step in cooperation includes harmonization of the higher education systems. As proved by the European practice, to achieve good progress in the socioeconomic area, it is necessary to design independent space in which education should be made the key tool for achieving the goals. To this end, the education systems have to be unified in the first place. To design a customer model and concept of higher education development that may train qualified experts in various areas with due regard for the labor market is the priority task of the Association as well as its strategic partners.
Meng-Hsuan Chou and Pauline Ravinet believe that despite the regional diversity of the countries, the initiatives suggested by the same have much in common. This concerns focusing on importance of the regional mobility and degrees in order to be competitive at the world higher education market as compared to other regions [7]. This educational direction chosen by the member states determines the general trend of education regionalization in the Southeast Asia.
The ASEAN member states are putting efforts into regionalization and harmonization of the higher education space, and their economically developed partners are playing an important role in this process. As the leader in the region, South Korea is striving to ensure that the national higher education meets the standards of the higher education space in the region as well as the world ratings. The sector modernization is targeted at delivering modern quality education based on its fundamentality and compliance with the relevant and prospective needs of an individual, the society, and the state [8]. To accomplish this goal, the government annually allocates about 8% of the total gross domestic product for education [9]. Today, the South Korean education system financing is a relevant issue, and the education policy is a priority for the government.
Another essential factor determining the governmental engagement in the education sector development and strengthening is that the education costs of the South Korean local self-government bodies in 2019 constitute about 40.6 billion South Korean wons, a third of which is given to improvement and advancement of the higher education sector, which is 17.7 billion more than in 2017 [10].
Analyzing the data presented in "Budget of the South Korean local self-government bodies allocated for education from 2015 to 2019" chart, we can conclude that the education sector financing tends to increase every year.
This estimate also proves that considerable investments into education may become the starting point for resolution of many economic problems in the country. Maintaining a powerful governmental control over all areas of social life, Korea manages adaptation of the domestic education system to development and diversification of the economic needs [11]. Ук р а ї н с ь к и й п е д а го г і ч н и й ж у р н а л . 2 0 2 0 . № 3 Exploring the latest trends marking the Korean society development, we can conclude that the important factor of the economic growth in South Korea is new substantial and verified knowledge as well as unique ideas that rather quickly turn into something material.
Today, the country has designed the education system development strategy that extends to all the levels starting from the primary school and ending with the high school. The primary goal of the strategy is intellectual, spiritual and physical development of the prospective expert as well as acquisition of the competence so necessary for the future professional activity.
Even now, the government of the country puts much effort into maintaining the position of one of the leading countries of the world in many areas including education and science. Therefore, the latest efficient methods of research of the education system in other countries are implemented. Exploration and adaptation of their experience prevent any fatal errors in the new education strategy designing. K. Krechetnikov and P. Semenova say that one of the most common comparison objects is the United States higher education system, which is number 5 in the world education rankings [12]. We believe that this may be explained as follows: -first, the higher education system in the United States of America has come through the hard way of establishment in a relatively short time starting from just a few colleges with unclearly defined authority and growing into a structured, manifold system of reputable higher education schools, so it can be used as an example of success for other countries; -second, analyzing the world rankings of the best universities, it becomes evident that American schools are winning every year; -third, upon occupation of South Korea at the end of the World War II, the USA became a real senior partner of this country building the relationship of equality lasting for over 70 years up to and including now.
Based on researches of the South Korean higher education system, we may assert that it is synchronized with the world standards of higher education and develops in the context of the specified global and regional trends as internationalization and digitalization. This is because the rapid development of the South Korean higher education system primarily depends on the state the educational policy of which features multibillion financing, positive experience of other countries in the area, new trends and ability to follow those. In addition, it is worth mentioning that all of the education system is designed on the basis of the Confucius system of world outlook [13] focused on respectful attitude of the Korean people towards education and science in general.
At the present stage of South Korean higher education development, there are the following forms of internationalization reflected in the activity of nearly all universities of South Korea: -establishment of the academic mobility programs for the students and the teachers to enable educational and cultural exchange; -mobility of the educational programs that allow educational exchange of students, postgraduate students and teachers, as well as institutional mobility; -foundation of university education alliances; -formation of the new education policy utilizing the international experience; -initiation of the new educational programs meeting the international higher education standards; -university partnership. Academic mobility is currently the main activity of Korean universities and institutes. The language programs for foreign citizens are evolving within the higher education system. Every national university offers its own educational program based on which the students from all over the world are admitted to different areas of education.
As evidenced by the OECD documents today, over 4.1 million students of all over the world have studied outside the boundaries of the country the citizens of which they are [14]. In the Asian countries, nearly 52 % of all students study abroad. The majority of these come from the countries like China, India and Korea (77%) [15].
South Korea also has regional education programs. Thus, Wonkwang University offers the program that allows the students from the CIS-partner universities to study one or two terms and have their academic credits listed in their higher education institutions of their home countries. As a rule, the exchange programs for the CIS countries are broader than those for other countries. In addition to language learning, such programs include attending other courses in the specialty, taking examinations and receiving the certificate of participation in the international exchange program. However, it should be mentioned that the students do not personally receive their results. The academic transcript with the grades is signed and forwarded to the partner university by one of the employees of the International Cooperation Department of Wonkwang University. So we can conclude that the governments of both countries are doing everything possible to share their success and achievements in the area in order to prevent isolated development of education and science.
As part of the global and regional integration within the frames of the ASEAN, South Korea, being and economic leader, strives to improve the quality and competitive ability of the national higher education, including to upgrade its digitalization level. Digitalization and introduction of distance learning is one of the key educational trends of South Korea.
To increase the international competitiveness of education and scientific researches, a number of reforms aimed at computerization and technologization of the higher education system have been implemented. In 2000, two years earlier than planned, the Ministry of Education finished "Information Day in Education" comprehensive plan the purpose of which was to design quality infrastructure for the entire educational environment from ordinary schools to universities. The Ministry of Education claimed that it cost the state 613.4 billion wons [16]. The primary objective was to provide the educational institutions of all levels with the adequate equipment in order to create a special internet network for further use by all participants of the educational process.
Presently, all schools, higher education institutions and other state establishments responsible for operation of the national education system have internet access. Even more, every university has its own internal computer network that enables the users to quickly find the requisite information, transmit the data, and connect all education process participants in no time as well as to launch distance learning.
We believe that in the context of global changes online (distance) learning will unwind every year, and soon it will narrow down the demand for the ordinary higher education schools that are most probably destined to vanish soon.
A promising position of the Korean government is integration of the higher education in the continuing education system because at this time the economy recognizes the necessity of continuous improvement of the professional skills by the South Korean people for maintaining leadership in the region and the world.
Considering the important role of the continuing education in personal fulfillment, the Constitution of the country has been updated with the provisions stating that the Government is responsible for all the necessary lifelong support of the education development. Therefore, the South Korean Government has been developing the national lifelong education system since 1999 to make sure that the people get help to disclose their potential for further individual growth and development of the society as a whole.
The continuing education programs are becoming more popular every year. This category encompasses public high schools, trade and industry schools. The beauty of such educational institutions is that they operate as an open lecture hall, and everyone interested may attend the class without the prior admission.
Today, the schools offering such education in South Korea are nominally classified as follows: -continuing professional education is represented by part-time education or evening classes, industrial universities, or trade schools; -general or liberal education includes the programs designed by various state or private organizations, in particular, specialized education programs for cultural education of women, young, and elderly people.
Conclusion. Based on the research results, we can state that the higher education development trends in South Korea are synchronized with the world trends under globalization influence. Thus, in course of the research, we singled out the following key trends: internationalization; regionalization; harmonization; digitalization.
Internationalization is the general trend is globally, while intensive partnership within ASEAN member states creates favorable conditions for students to take part in the educational exchanges at the regional level, thus enhancing the harmonization processes in the region. At the university level, the distance learning system has been implemented, and a wide variety of online courses has been developed. Ук р а ї н с ь к и й п е д а го г і ч н и й ж у р н а л . 2 0 2 0 . № 3 Establishment and development of the higher education system in South Korea has been challenging, but today we can definitely say that it is one of the most efficient systems in the region and in the world. Developing collaterally with the leading countries, discovering the positive foreign experience, South Korea has implemented it into its own system consistently with the cultural realties. Today, the Government of the country endeavors to support and improve the higher education. South Korea has one of the highest economic performance variables facilitating emergence of new strategies and formation of the landmarks for the higher education development in the region. The financial policy of the country apparently proves that the Government will continue working towards establishing the "knowledge economy." The experience of South Korea in the sector of higher education is valuable for Ukraine, especially under situation when there are only a few Ukrainian scholars who are currently researching South Korean education. All of this allows us to talk about the prospects for further study of the phenomenon of South Korean education, in particular higher education. We believe that such positions as: special attention to the development of higher education as a guarantee of development of the national economy; synchronization with global and regional trends in higher education are very promising for Ukraine.
At the time when Ukrainian education is under constant transformation, it can be stated, that new knowledge on the topic of higher education development in South Korea would be valuable.