University education in South Korea is a charged topic, deeply entwined with recent social and cultural changes. As Michael Seth titles his book, Education Fever penetrates postindependence South Korea, with the comprehensive and universal education system producing national citizens and the zeal for university education influencing nearly every aspect of society.1 The post-authoritarian transition cannot be explained without Generation 86—those born in the 1960s who attended university in the 1980s. A university degree in the 1980s was synonymous with a white-collar job, middle-class status, and a liberal political subjectivity, and thus this generation shaped the new paradigm of democratic politics, economic reform, and culture in post-authoritarian South Korea.2
In the 1990s, shifting educational aspirations and strategies reflected and shaped South Korea’s globalizing and neoliberal changes. As competition for university admission escalated, a massive private after-schooling market emerged. Korea’s middle class sought to avoid the increasingly demanding formal education...
