The World On arirang

On November 15, hundreds of thousands of South Korean students took the "Suneung", also known as College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT). As it is usual every year, numerous crowds gathered in front of test-sites to cheer the students on, while parents visited places of worship to pray for their children's success. Many accommodations were made for the test-takers, such as a 1-hour delay to the start of working hours, as well as extra buses and subway trains in operation. Every year, students face grueling competition to enroll in university, with nearly 70% of the population opting for post-secondary education, although that figure has fallen in recent years. This is compared to the average of 44% seen among OECD countries, reflecting the desire of many Korean students to pursue a higher education, who even wait another year to re-take the CSAT in hopes of getting into an elite school. South Korea is not alone when it comes to academic competition, as a similar phenomenon can also be seen in other countries such as China, Japan and India, with students there also viewing enrollment at a top school as the key to earning a good job. Ranging from the SAT in the United States, to the Baccalaureate exam in France, how do countries across the world differ from Korea in terms of how their university admissions procedures are conducted? We delve into this issue in more detail in this week's edition of "Foreign Correspondents".