Introduction: The Origins of Korean Universities: Rethinking Through Colonial Private Vocational Schools

Part 1
The myth of national private education and the reality of colonial vocational schools

Jeong Jun-yeong | The Colonial Vocational School System or the Dark Side of "National History" - The Case of Joongang Buddhist Vocational School
Kim Il-hwan | Incorporating Private Vocational Schools into Foundations and the Public Context: The Case of Boseong Vocational School
Eun-jin Cho | The Curriculum of Government-Led Vocational Schools and the Inter-Korean Cooperation
Kang Myung-sook | War and Colonial Vocational Schools - Vocational School Policy after 1938

Part 2
Studying at a vocational school and becoming an intellectual in the colony

Kim Pil-dong | Vocational Schools and Sociology Education under Japanese Colonialism
Yun Hae-dong | Confucianism and Higher Education in the Colonial Period: The Case of Myeongnyun College
Lee Kyung-sook | Professor at a Vocational School, Residences of Colonial Intellectuals - The Case of Soongsil College

Part 3
What You Learn at a Vocational School: A Professional Journal That Confronts Colonial Reality

Kim Geun-bae | Scientists and Engineers at Soongsil College - Departments of Science, Agriculture, and Alumni
Kim Jeong-in | Teacher Training: The Direction of Colonial Women's Education - The Case of Ewha Womans College
Eun-kyung Choi | Korean Female Doctors during the Japanese Colonial Period - From Graduation from Tokyo Women's Medical College to the Founding of Gyeongseong Women's Medical College
Jangshin | The Origins of Korean Medical Schools

Search
About the author

During the Japanese colonial period, higher education was not limited to only Keijo Imperial University.
However, the only 'university' recognized by the Japanese Government-General of Korea in the colony was Keijo Imperial University.
To go to 'university', one had to go to Gyeongseong Imperial University through fierce competition, or go to Japan or another foreign country to seek education.
However, if higher education is not limited to ‘university,’ there were other paths to higher education even in colonial Korea.
That was the vocational school.


By definition, a 'vocational school' is a school that teaches specialized knowledge or skills.
Among them, 'private vocational schools' occupied the lowest position in the hierarchical higher education structure of the colony throughout the Japanese colonial period.
However, in colonial Korea, private vocational schools were not necessarily 'inferior' institutions limited to practical vocational education and specialized training.
Many students entered these schools with aspirations for higher education, and dreamed of ideals and aspirations different from those of the Japanese-dominated government-run higher education system established and operated by the colonial power.
For Korean intellectuals who had difficulty engaging in academic activities under Japanese-led academia, private vocational schools also served as a means to continue such activities.

Of course, private vocational schools could not shine only as ‘national private schools’ like the myth of later generations.
It was not easy for private vocational schools to escape the magnetic field of colonial power, and the harsh reality of colonialism they faced was that they had no choice but to waver between "colonial power" and "national history" at every moment.
Nevertheless, the significance of these private vocational schools is not small.
After liberation, not only did these schools give rise to a number of prestigious private universities, but the human and institutional legacies they left behind left a significant mark on Korean universities as a whole.

This book contains the results of joint research conducted by researchers in the fields of history, sociology, and educational history since 2019.
This book does not predetermine a consistent system or perspective, nor does it cover all private vocational schools.
In fact, in the current state of our academic world, research on colonial higher education, especially on private vocational schools, is still in its infancy.
Rather, in that sense, this book demonstrates the current state of academia on this issue, and attempts to offer a clue as to how we should view the systems and organizations of private vocational schools, their scholarship and knowledge, and the human legacy they leave behind, as well as what and how we should research in the future.
I hope that readers will broaden their horizons through this book, understanding and empathizing with the fact that colonial private vocational schools were "another origin" of Korean universities, and therefore examining the experiences of colonial private vocational schools offers a new way to read the history of Korean universities.

'Another Origin' of Korean Universities Through the Lens of Colonial Private Vocational Schools - Did Korean Universities Start at Private Vocational Schools, Not Gyeongseong Imperial University?

This book is a compilation of research findings that examine in detail the entire context of colonial private vocational schools, focusing on them as "another origin" of Korean universities.
As is well known, during the colonial period in Joseon, no universities other than Gyeongseong Imperial University, which was directly established by the colonial power, were permitted to be established.
Several groups that aimed to provide higher education for Koreans continuously attempted to establish 'universities', but ultimately had no choice but to settle for the establishment of 'private' 'vocational schools'.
This reflects the fact that studies on the historical origins of the Korean university system have focused on universities after liberation in 1945, or even before that, have limited themselves to analyzing universities such as Keijo Imperial University.

However, the colonial private vocational schools were more than just undeveloped institutions that had not yet become 'universities'.
This is not only to point out that private vocational schools were the predecessors of today's leading private universities.
For example, Gyeongseong Imperial University was close to being an institution from which Koreans were completely excluded from its operation.
Although there were many 'Chosunjin' who graduated from the Imperial University, there were no Koreans who taught or ran an academic program at the Imperial University.
Ultimately, the experiences that Korean intellectuals referenced after liberation when planning and operating new universities were close to those they had accumulated while establishing, teaching, and operating private vocational schools in the colony.
This is why the authors pose the somewhat provocative question, “Couldn’t Korean universities be descendants of private vocational schools rather than Gyeongseong Imperial University?”

The Reality of Colonial Private Vocational Schools as Seen Through Institutions and Organizations, Academics and Intellectuals, and Educational Experience

Private vocational schools in colonial Korea were unique organizations in many ways.
First of all, there was no place in the Japanese Empire's territories, including Taiwan and Manchuria, where the establishment and operation of private vocational schools were as active as in Joseon.
Private vocational schools were clearly part of the colonial higher education system, but they only accepted Korean students and education was conducted in the Korean language.
This is also the background to the rise of private vocational schools as 'national private schools' that stood against the Japanese-dominated Keijo Imperial University and government-run vocational schools.
The authors examine in detail the unique experiences of colonial private vocational schools and the legacies they left for Korean universities after liberation, from the perspectives of institutions and organizations, academics and intellectuals, and professional education experience.


The studies included in Part I address the contradictory existence of private vocational schools that were incorporated into the colonial education system but not fully integrated into it.
This reveals the complexity of private vocational schools, which at times resisted colonial power and pursued independent education, but frequently complied with it, were co-opted by it, and even actively cooperated with it under the pretext of expanding their influence.
In Chapter 1, Jeong Jun-yeong outlines the characteristics of the colonial vocational school system and dissects the myth of ‘national private education’ through the case of the Central Buddhist Vocational School.
In Chapter 2, Kim Il-hwan examines the origins of the Korean private university system, where foundations became the main players in establishing and managing private universities, through the case of Boseong College. He also clarifies the significance of private school foundations being publicly operated in a colonial society.
In Chapter 3, Eun-Jin Cho mainly addresses the issue of admission qualifications for vocational schools and domestic and international studies, focusing on the case of public vocational schools.
In Chapter 4, Kang Myeong-suk analyzes the vocational school policy of the Japanese Government-General of Korea under the wartime system after 1938, and analyzes the way in which vocational school education became formalized during the preparations for war.

Part 2 examines what it meant to be an intellectual and to pursue scholarship in a colony through the lens of private vocational schools.
Although private vocational schools were never recognized as "universities," their significance was significant in that they were the only places where academic pursuits "by Koreans, for Koreans" were institutionally possible in colonial society.
In Chapter 5, Kim Pil-dong meticulously demonstrates, through extensive historical materials, how private vocational schools could become places where Korean sociologists taught sociology to Korean students in the Korean language.
In Chapter 6, Yun Hae-dong examines the reorganization of Confucianism, a traditional knowledge system and religion, into a specialized knowledge system that can be taught in vocational schools through Confucian higher education institutions such as Myeongnyun Academy and Myeongnyun College.
In Chapter 7, Lee Kyung-sook uses the case of Soongsil College to closely trace the path of professor recruitment, the composition of the faculty, and the characteristics of the intellectual network formed through this process.


Part 3 examines what it meant to learn at a colonial vocational school.
Even though the specialized knowledge taught in private vocational schools was of a lower status than that of imperial universities, it was the highest level of knowledge accessible to many colonial intellectuals.
Examining what the elites educated here pursued after liberation is a crucial key to understanding the early formation of Korean universities.
In Chapter 8, Kim Geun-bae examines the careers of Korean scientists and engineers who graduated from the Department of Science and the Department of Agriculture at Sungsil College.
In Chapter 9, Kim Jeong-in examines the significance of the fact that one of the goals of colonial women's education was 'teacher training' through the case of Ewha Women's College.
In Chapter 10, Eun-kyung Choi questions the meaning of being trained as a female doctor and living in a colony through the activities of four female doctors from Tokyo Women's Medical College who led the establishment of Gyeongseong Women's College (but were unable to complete it).
Finally, in Chapter 11, Jang Shin traces the background of how Korean medical education after liberation was institutionalized in a unique form of pre-medical education that was neither Japanese nor American.

Why Private Vocational Schools Now? A History of Private Vocational Schools in the Age of the "University Crisis."

The essays included in this book demonstrate, from different perspectives, that the historical experience of private vocational schools during the colonial period was another origin for Korean universities after liberation.
But why, at this point in time, do we need to revisit the history of private vocational schools?

In fact, the 'crisis theory' of Korean universities has been rampant for a long time.
Moreover, it is difficult to find a methodology for dealing with the mounting crisis.
One of the important reasons for this may be that Korean higher education is overly dependent on private universities.
Private universities in Korea already account for 80% of all universities and about 70% of enrolled students.
Since liberation, public universities have never had an advantage over private universities, and the gap between local public universities and private universities in the metropolitan area is growing wider.
Moreover, although Korean universities are regarded as public property whose importance no one denies, in reality they exist as private property that is privately owned, operated, and managed.
The fact that most universities in Korea are private is a fundamental constraint on fundamentally resolving the university crisis through public intervention.


But how well do we understand the origins of these problems? It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that the history of private universities in Korea has been too easily glossed over through the myth of "national history" or dismissed as "backward" and "regressive" due to the tyranny of some private school leaders.
Rather, what is truly needed is to trace the diverse origins and sources of the heterogeneous elements that make up the Korean private university system and to understand in detail the resulting effects.
In that sense, this work's tracing of the origins of the problem of private universities in Korea through "private vocational schools" may provide an important opportunity to examine the problems we face more fundamentally.