KOREAN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS' PERCEPTIONS OF ACCOUNTABLITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Accountability in higher education has been a significant issue throughout the world over the past few decades. The Korean government over the last few years has enacted various education policies and ambitious projects in response to calls for accountability in higher education. No matter how important and necessary education policies made by policy makers and led by a few administrators of each HEI, policies would not be effective or successful without students’ active participation or understanding of those issues. This study explored the similarities and differences of university students’ perceptions on major issues related to accountability according to school types and majors. Findings from this study demonstrated that students’ perspectives provided some noticeable comments on accountability issues in Korea. Due to the lack of literature regarding college students’ perceptions on higher education, administrators and policy makers may not know to what extend on how college students perceive accountability issues in higher education. This study revealed that most students think curricular and faculty capabilities related to their major specialties are both significant factors influencing higher education quality. Students are well aware of education quality, but previous studies do not relate to the matter focused on students’ perspectives but rather, most of them dealt with education issues based on administrators’ standpoints. The majority of the respondents agreed with that their opinions on accountability issues should be considered in some ways. The results in the study indicated that most students answered to questions seriously more than the researcher thought. That means that they should be considered as one of the significant discussants so that they express their opinions on accountability in higher education.