International liberal arts programs in Japan and South Korea face the challenge of integrating Western-inspired education into national identities with non-English language traditions. Despite their global orientation, national contexts still play a crucial role in shaping the endogenous nature of the dynamics of English-language liberal education in Japan and South Korea at both institutional and individual levels.

With increasing economic uncertainty, both employers and students demand higher education, which is directly linked to job-related knowledge and skills that ensure employability. In the United States, liberal arts colleges have occasionally been criticized for their elitist nature. In East Asia, however, liberal education, especially taught in English, has recently gained prominence, with varying degrees of acceptance in different countries. What are the characteristics, social meanings, ideological significance, and problems associated with English-medium liberal education in East Asia? There is great diversity in the ideas and forms of liberal arts education in East Asia, and some are completely different from the North American modes, in particular in China. Japan and South Korea have special characteristics in their development of liberal arts education as economically advanced non-English-speaking countries with long and close diplomatic relations with the United States. In the last three decades, both countries have experienced the active introduction of liberal arts education with English medium instruction, while these programs remain small under strong national language identities. They represent how higher education institutions and the national government respond to the global flow of knowledge and the dominance of English in the academic world, but their acceptance and development is quite different, according to their respective national contexts. 

“International Liberal Arts” in South Korea and Japan

Considered in the context of the internationalization of higher education, contemporary liberal education fosters holistic skills and knowledge that prepare learners to become global citizens with the mindset and skills necessary to respond to a complex, diverse, and rapidly changing society. Most “international liberal arts colleges” in Japan and South Korea are modeled after North American liberal arts colleges, incorporating their philosophy and history. International liberal arts in Japan and South Korea is expanded by the fact that it is not just liberal arts but “international liberal arts,” taught in English. Practically, this means that the difficulty of learning in English can be overcome by a relatively shallow level of specialization. Ideologically, the concept of liberal arts and education of the whole person is consistent with the concept of national human resource development, which emphasizes generic skills. International liberal arts is provided by less than 10 percent of all universities in both countries. What Japan and South Korea—both with diverse and hierarchical higher education systems—have in common is that the provision of international liberal arts colleges is prevalent among elite institutions. International liberal arts education in these countries has posed fundamental challenges to the nature of student–faculty relationships and the ways in which classroom instruction is facilitated. These are in contrast to the traditional forms of teaching, and the gender landscape in elite and semi-elite universities, which are characterized by one-way teaching by professors, a strict ordering relationship between faculty and students, and a skewed gender balance underpinned by the stress of cultural homogeneity. If we look closely, we can also observe differences in the characteristics of international liberal arts colleges between these two countries. 

In South Korea, “liberal arts” is not considered a competitive subject for students’ career development, and double majors in practical courses such as economics or computer science are most popular at international liberal arts colleges. South Korean students prefer to develop their professional skills and knowledge and often take English-taught courses offered by other departments; international colleges also encourage their students to do so. The appeal of international programs often lies in gaining English language skills rather than liberal and interdisciplinary studies. The “English fever” is deeply rooted in South Korea, with its trade-dependent economic structure and the disparity between global and local companies, and is also strongly linked to exam-centeredness and social class reproduction. Studying in the United States and other English-speaking countries and obtaining the highest degrees brings critical value to both industry and academia in South Korea, and the provision of international liberal arts fits in that pattern. 

Japan, on the other hand, has been nationally self-sufficient in knowledge production. Since the Meiji Restoration in 1868, it has developed its academic tradition by importing and catching up with Western knowledge and scholarship through translation into Japanese. These translations have enabled many Japanese scholars to read cutting-edge research from abroad in the national language. The country’s sizeable population of over 120 million Japanese speakers has helped sustain an academic system in Japanese. Simultaneously, the demand for English in Japan is not as high as in South Korea, and interest in English and internationalization is still the prerogative of the elite and the cosmopolitan few in a highly unbalanced academic community, given that the majority of students are inward-looking and spend their entire lives in Japan. As a result, students with international aspirations who apply to international liberal arts colleges at Japanese universities tend to study a variety of academic disciplines without clear specialization directly linked to specific professional expertise. Japanese companies generally hire students based on personality and commitment rather than professional skills, so Japanese students do not work hard for “specs” such as expertise, qualifications, and language skills as South Korean students do. Leading companies in Japan are strengthening recruitment to bridge the (English-based) global business world and the Japanese business community (in Japanese language and culture), which, to some extent, still preserves the tradition of internal career promotion with in-house on-the-job training. Studying in an international liberal arts program is generally well-regarded by the job market in terms of developing generic skills.

Looks Global, but National Connection Preserved 

International liberal arts colleges, teaching in English but designed and provided by the initiatives of East Asian host countries, are oriented to the West and to “elite Asia” as the main market for international students.

Nevertheless, the following two questions arise: Why do international students seek English-language liberal arts colleges in Japan and South Korea rather than in Western countries, especially the United States? Why do the Japanese and South Korean governments support and promote the provision of international liberal arts education in English for international students? The answer is that international colleges also serve as places for international students to learn about Japan and South Korea or to pursue Japanese- and South Korean-related studies in their respective national contexts.

Liberal arts colleges in Japan and South Korea may appear transnational, international, global, or even convergent; however, they are also essentially nationalistic and nation-centered. Such a distinctive Japanese or South Korean appeal to liberal arts colleges can only be presented in these national contexts. Liberal arts colleges translate the national context into externally presented global knowledge for learners. This means the provision of Japanese or South Korean studies, which allows students to study Japan and South Korea in English in addition to Japanese and South Korean language skills. Such programs also aim to develop the nations’ human resources by equipping domestic students with English and other transferable skills and making them globally and nationally competitive. Internationalization of higher education in Japan and South Korea, which appears to be moving in a cosmopolitan and transnational direction, is aligned with a national orientation that seeks to cultivate human resources who are active in their own country’s interests, as well as Japanophiles and pro-South Korean foreigners with a cosmopolitan orientation.

Sae Shimauchi is associate professor in the International Center of Tokyo Metropolitan University, Japan. E-mail: [email protected].

Akiyoshi Yonezawa is professor and vice-director of the International Strategy Office of Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan. E-mail: [email protected].