On April 25th, 2011, Professor Han Soonghee presented a wonderful academic lecture in meeting room 329, in the College of Education. The topic was "Education in a Learning Society? Approaches, Achievements and Challenges in Korean Society". Dr. Mei Weihui chaired the lecture, and about 20 graduate students and Ph.D students majoring in comparative education participated in the lecture.
    Professor Han Soonghee first provided an overview of basic education, vocational education/engineering education and higher education in Korea. He analyzed the enrollment changes in Korea through intuitive figures during the period of 1945-2005 from primary to higher education, and indicated inequality between generations through contrasting the populations in the age groups of 25-34 and 45-54. Professor Han then mentioned that students studied the subjects less relevant to economic and social development, so the idea that "Korea needs a Learning Revolution" was proposed. He also brought forth the ideas that learning is more fundamental, system reformation should be first, partnership is more important. Finally, Han Professor described learning reformation framework and knowledge-creating learning models, comparing a Learning Society with a network society, a global society, and a knowledge society. After the lecture, Professor Han discussed issues about the connotation of continuing education, the purpose of lifelong education and building a learning society with the teachers and students.
    The content of Professor Han’s lecture was rich and he shared his views on the purpose of education and human resources with all the participants.

Recorded by Ph.D. student Yu Hao
April.25th, 2011