Global Financial Crisis Upends the Plans of Many South Koreans to Study Abroad

Posted by Lily Chung
Article written by Martin Fackler

The global financial crisis has hammered confidence in South Korea's once-booming economy, decimating the value of its currency, the won, and forcing tens of thousands of students to alter their study plans, or cancel them altogether.

For Ms. Seo, the won’s plunge in value by a third just in the last few months drove up the cost of her four-year degree program by $10,000, far beyond her savings.

In recent years, studying abroad has become de rigueur for competitive students in this education-obsessed nation. As the growing economy raised living standards and strengthened the won, increasing numbers of parents sent their children overseas to learn English and earn prestigious foreign degrees, hoping to help them gain a leg up in South Korea’s intensely competitive job market, or to help them escape from its high-pressure education system.

Now there are early signs that the [study abroad] bubble may be deflating.

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