University culture in South Korea was formed in the tumultuous social milieu of nearly four decades-long autocratic rule. University students found their identity through organizing and spearheading anti-corruption and anti-dictatorship mass protests such as the 1960 April Revolution, the 1979 Bu-Ma Democratic Protests, the 1980 Gwangju Uprising, and the 1987 June Struggle. Despite government crackdown, student activities promoting free exchange of ideas and free expression continued on university campuses in the form of student clubs. Big-character posters, historically used to publicly demonstrate opposition to military dictatorship, are a lasting tradition that can be seen on university walls to this day. Such student club culture and the activities remain the linchpin of university life.
Residential life at South Korean universities can be largely categorized into university dormitories, near-campus housing, and commuting from home. University students in South Korea are not required to live in dormitories. Dormitories are rather reserved for students who do not live within commutable distances. If the number of eligible students exceeds dorm capacity, space is allocated based on academic performance. Most university dorms in South Korea are segregated by sex and subject to curfews. A significant number of students live alone in studios near university campuses, or a communal form of housing called hasukjib, which has been featured in multiple K-dramas.
Drinking has evolved to become one of the major subcultures on university campuses in South Korea. Because Korea's Youth Protection Act defines drinking age as January 1 of the year one turns 19 (not one's birthday), being able to drink is a common denominator over which first-year university students form friendships. However, excessive drinking during university events has frequently resulted in the death of one or more students. In the wake of a series of alcohol-related accidents in the early 2010s, a national assemblyman proposed a bill that would ban possession of alcohol on university campuses but it never became law after having garnered both huge support and backlash from civil society.
There is disproportionate attention to universities located within the Seoul capital area, which often becomes the focal point of criticism that it fuels elitism.
Historical background Universities in South Korea go as far back as 1398 ACE when Sungkyunkwan was founded as the highest educational institute of the Joseon dynasty. However, Keijō Imperial University, the predecessor of Seoul National University, established in 1924 by the Japanese Empire, marks the beginning of higher education in South Korea that agrees with the modern definition of a university. The Korean people under the Japanese rule had attempted to erect universities independently but failed to obtain official status due to the Governor-General of Chōsen's refusal to issue permits. Despite the predicament, many colleges established independently of Japanese influence during the movement obtained official university status after Korea reclaimed independence in 1945.
During military dictatorship between 1960 and 1987, university students stood at the forefront of anti-dictatorship protests, oftentimes organizing mass demonstrations themselves. The April Revolution in 1960 was the first successful student-led democratization movement in South Korea that ousted President Syngman Rhee, which catapulted university students to the drivers of social change. However, Park Chunghee rose to power through a military coup in the following year, declaring a new constitution and establishing the Second Republic. Park's declaration of martial law and pushing through a constitutional amendment in 1972, which granted the president sweeping executive and legislative powers, sparked swift backlash within the student civil society. Although Park had been successful in suppressing mass demonstrations organized by university students, buoyed by the popularity in his early years, demonstrations against Park's regime eventually began to erupt nationwide as Park's popularity started to dwindle. While it was not the student-led mass protests that brought about the fall of President Park, it is generally believed that the student society across universities fostered an environment in which Park's authoritarian reign could not last.
After Park's assassination in 1979, Chun Doo-hwan, the then-army general, orchestrated yet another military coup, usurping power and quashing hopes of democratization. Chun's coup spurred civil unrest throughout the country, leading up to the anti-martial law demonstration in May 1980, coordinated by 35 universities in Seoul and an additional 24 universities outside Seoul where between 70,000 and 100,000 university students took to the open square of Seoul Station. After a series of failed protests led by university student union, the June Democratic Uprising, prompted by the death of Bak Jong-cheol, the then-president of Seoul National University's student council and a prodemocracy activist, forced Chun to step down and compelled party leaders, both ruling and opposition, to hold a referendum on a constitutional amendment, which vastly reduced presidential powers, codified direct presidential elections, and strengthened civil rights.
Big-character posters Big-character posters are an important form of expressing opinions in public areas, usually on university campuses. They mostly come in A0, the biggest of the international A series papers, called jeonji (Korean: 전지) in Korean.
Big-character posters have been heavily deployed by university students throughout the modern history of South Korea as a means of railing against dictatorship and government censorship. Authors may sign their posters to claim ownership of the expressed opinion, but signature is not required and authors may remain anonymous. It is conventional for the author to voluntarily put up the poster and to remove it by a self-assigned deadline, which is oftentimes announced in the same poster.
At times of economic and social distress, university walls near commonly used walking trails functioned as public agoras. University wall posters played a big role in the aftermath of the 2013 railroad strike in South Korea when a Korea University student wrote a satirical poster that started off by asking everyone's well-being as a rallying call, urging the public to realize how unacceptable the political state was. It was received by the student society across universities as a wake-up call, and set off a chain reaction, where more than 40 posters were subsequently put up side by side in response.
The university poster culture peaked again during President Park Geun-hye's term when Park and her administration were implicated in a string of corruption scandals, which generated public fury. In the wake of 2014 capsizing of the Sewol ferry, Park's administration attempted to silence public outcry on social media by creating a task force charged with monitoring and prosecuting online critics using Korea's defamation law. In October 2015, the Park administration announced a plan to force all middle and high schools in South Korea to use state-issued history textbook, which reminded her critics of her father Park Chung-hee's authoritarian rule. Two months later in December 2015, Park struck a deal with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to resolve the comfort women issue "irreversibly," despite widespread public opposition in South Korea. The national furor culminated when several news media exposed Park's inappropriate relationship with her confidante, Choi Soon-sil. South Korean university students, in the midst of political turmoil, voiced concerns and channeled their anger on university walls, openly denouncing President Park and her top aide, Choi Soon-sil, while calling for Park's resignation. Ewha Womans University, where Choi's daughter, Chung Yoo-ra, attended, was accused of changing the admission rules to give Chung an unfair advantage, a favor Park returned by showering a professor at Ewha Womans University with research grant of approximately ₩5.5 billion (about $4.4 million) in total. Subsequently, Ewha Womans University saw their walls filling up with big-character posters, expressing humiliation of being affiliated with the university and criticizing the cozy relationship between the university and the Park administration.
Student organizations Arguably, the two main pillars of autonomous student organizations at any given university are the student council and student clubs. The student council represents the entire student body and engages in negotiations with university leadership. The student council has a hierarchical structure, with the general council at the top and an autonomous council within each constituent college. An event that is referred to as "student-organized" or "student-led" is by definition organized or hosted by one of these student councils, either at the university level or a college level.
Enduring oppressive rule in the 1970s and the 1980s, student councils developed tactics to circumvent government censorship and surveillance, and cultivate the next generation of prodemocracy activists. University student councils would organize seemingly nonpolitical events such as freshmen welcoming party or annual picnics, which served as an instrument with which upperclassmen informed freshmen about the cruelty of military dictatorship. University students would circulate books in student clubs that are deemed by authoritarian regimes as "propagating impure and corrupt ideologies," going beyond the proclaimed objectives at the time of formation.
Since the democratization in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the scope of club activities has pivoted from activism to a broader array of topics, including entertainment, sports, career development, religious activities, and extracurricular learning. There is a terminological distinction between entertainment-focused circles, called dong'ari (Korean: 동아리), and student clubs specifically organized to study topics that are rarely covered in regular curriculums, called hakhoe (Korean: 학회). University students in South Korea are able to meet a variety of people from different backgrounds in these extracurricular settings as club membership is not limited to a single academic department. Furthermore, registered student organizations are allocated space within university buildings to facilitate and support meeting. Club members are generally free to visit the space between classes, which often becomes the breeding ground for social relationships. Club activities have been reported to have a positive effect on university students' overall satisfaction.
In recent years, student organizations have seen a steep decline in participation rate due to cutthroat job market and high unemployment rates. South Korea has seen a fourfold increase in the number of college graduates over the past two decades as education is viewed as the ticket to higher socioeconomic status. Exacerbated by slowing economic growth and aging population, university students are increasingly shunning extracurricular activities unrelated to employment competitiveness. Some attribute the decline to growing individualism in the younger generation, culturally rejecting social mingling.
Residential life