Foreign faculty say ‘insider networks’ block careers in Korea

Foreign academics working in South Korea say they face entrenched exclusion, pay disparities and opaque evaluation systems that are undermining universities’ drive to internationalise.

Several international scholars currently or formerly based in South Korea spoke to Times Higher Education about their experiences as the country increases its efforts to attract overseas students and staff amid demographic decline.

In recent years, South Korea has expanded initiatives aimed at global competitiveness, including major funding programmes to support regional universities and boost international enrolment.

But the scholars who spoke to THE said they felt their careers were too often shaped by closed decision-making, Korean-only administration and cultural hierarchies that can leave outsiders vulnerable.

One academic at a South Korean university, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of losing their job and potential legal action, said many international academics see the country as a stepping stone rather than a long-term base.

“International postdoctoral researchers, academics and professors may receive lower salaries than Koreans, making them feel discriminated [against],” he continued. “Foreigners are often excluded from the age-based pay system, and are often on non-tenure-track or fixed-term contracts, which are non-regular employees under South Korean law. There is also discrimination in promotion to higher academic ranks.”

In contrast, he noted that universities in parts of the Middle East offer higher salaries, family travel benefits and tax-free incentives to attract foreign scholars. “Unfortunately, this doesn’t happen in South Korea,” he said.

Olga Fedorenko, a professor of anthropology at Seoul National University, described her experience “less as intentional discrimination and more as systemic and cultural challenges that affect international faculty broadly”.

“There is a sense that our belonging in Korea and at the university is perpetually in question, which has an alienating effect,” she said.

She said the problem was most visible in the university's “insider culture”, where information “circulates informally through long-standing alumni networks, leaving international staff with frequent ‘unknown unknowns’ – not just what we don’t know, but what we don’t even know to ask about”.

“When I was hired, I was placed on an expedited track for my first promotion – an opportunity that could have been really valuable,” Fedorenko said. “But I only learned about this a couple of weeks before the promotion documents were due. I hadn’t strategically planned my publications to take advantage of it. No one thought to tell me, and I had no way of knowing this was even a possibility.”

She stressed that she did not see this as “as malicious exclusions, just gaps that emerge when you’re not part of the long-standing networks where this kind of information circulates naturally”.

Another male professor, who also asked to remain anonymous, described more overt hostility linked to language expectations and seniority hierarchies.

A tenure-track academic at a public national university, he said he was hired specifically to teach and publish in English but was repeatedly reprimanded for not speaking Korean.

He added that opaque departmental rules can shape promotion outcomes regardless of whether university-level criteria are met. For example, in his first promotion attempt, he said his department invoked a policy he had not been told about.

“Departmental policies that operate like black boxes at the whim of the current power dynamics or politics within a department are not fair, but are honoured by the university,” he said.

Another female professor said exclusion can persist even for long-serving staff. She said that as a non-Korean academic her work often feels “lonely and alienating”.

Although she speaks and lectures in Korean, she said she is not invited to faculty meetings and is left out of informal social gatherings, reinforcing a sense of separation from colleagues.

Vladimir Tikhonov, now a professor of Korea studies at the University of Oslo, taught in Korea on a fixed-term contract at Kyunghee University more than two decades ago.
He said his experience illustrated the long-standing outsider status of foreign academics.

“I had full understanding that I would never become an insider there, even if I adopt Korean nationality,” he said. “So, I just found myself a position in Europe after my contract ended.”

Several academics linked their vulnerability to the absence of a comprehensive national anti-discrimination law. One male academic argued that structural reform is essential if South Korea wants to retain international talent.

Without meaningful changes, he warned, internationalisation efforts risk remaining superficial.

“Foreign academics are not simply numbers,” he said. “First of all, they’re humans.”

tash.mosheim@timeshighereducation.com