Student Union
South Korean Students Flock Back Home
As the COVID-19 pandemic expands in countries popular for studying abroad, over 100,000 South Korean students overseas are racing back home.
South Korea has received an influx of overseas Koreans, mostly students, in the past weeks, as most universities convert to online classes, and borders lock down amid the global pandemic.
"The main reason I decided to come back was because I didn't have the health care or the money to cover the costs of testing or treatment if I ended up contracting the virus," said Heasu Lee, a senior at George Mason University in Virginia.
South Korea is similar in size to New York state and is just reaching 9,800 confirmed cases in the entire nation, while New York has over 67,000 confirmed cases and more than 1,300 deaths within a few days.
South Korea's health authorities said they will ban incoming passengers with temperatures higher than 37.5 Celsius. Beginning April 1, the country will enforce a two-week self-isolation period for all overseas arrivals, whether they have symptoms or not.
Closures cause alarm
Along with worrying about protection and health care as foreigners, some students noticed an increase in panic and change in policies in countries hard hit with COVID-19, fueling their decision to return to Korea.
Jaeyi Jeong, a junior at Sungshin University in Seoul, studied in Aschaffenburg, Germany, for one year.
"I went to Germany as an exchange student to interact with people, take classes in a different country and experience a new country and culture. But once Germany began implementing stricter policies and shutting down schools, the reason as to why I went to Germany vanished," Jeong said.
She said she was shocked when all 16 states in Germany closed schools and day care centers until April 20. She first thought it would not affect her area because it was a remote region.
"I wasn't even in a big city like Berlin. I was in a small city on the outskirts of Frankfurt. But once I began hearing that there were cases there, I began to get anxious," she said.
Looking Asian brings anxiety
Jeong said she also experienced racism.
"I would probably experience racism like five times a day," she said. "Hearing, 'You're corona. Go back to China,' and 'Do you know how to even speak German?' would be the norm. Some would even stop in their tracks once they saw me, cover their mouths, or even run away. I thought to myself, 'I shouldn't have to stay here experiencing this and not be able to go to school.'" With a sudden demand for international flights to South Korea, students faced airline cancellations or inflated fares.
"I was desperate to leave within March because I thought this was the only way to leave within a reasonable price range," said Jeong.
Students who managed to score nonstop flights, however, did not report a comfortable ride.
"I went to the airport with a N95 mask and gloves and didn't take them off the entire 14-hour flight," said Lee of George Mason University. "I tried to go to the bathroom as little as possible and only ate one in-flight meal because I was so anxious during the ride."
Sheltering in place
There are also students who have decided to stay put for a little longer.
Saeyeon Kwon, a junior at George Mason University, said she is worried about being in the United States as a foreigner but decided to stay until the end of the semester.
"My parents and I decided that it's equally dangerous in the United States and in South Korea. There are a lot of cases where I live in South Korea, too, so we just decided it would be safer for me to stay put during this time," said Kwon.
She would have to readjust her schedule to U.S. time for online classes, she said, which was another reason she decided to stay in the United States.
Blame and shame
As thousands of students pour into South Korea, the country has seen a rise in new COVID-19 cases, for which the students are being blamed. Critics blame the students.
"Overseas student phobia," a phrase coined by several Korean news outlets, grew after a student traveling from the United States violated quarantine recommendations and went on a five-day trip to Jeju Island with her mother, despite having symptoms.
Ninety-six people who were in contact with them were forced into isolation. Over 20 businesses were forced to close.
During a meeting at Central Disaster Safety Response Headquarters on March 30, South Korean Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun requested to "pay exceptional attention towards young overseas students so that they do not violate guidelines and recommendations."
"I do understand people criticizing those who are not taking the necessary measures advised by the government," said Lee. "But I don't think people should criticize everyone, because there are many people following orders and self-quarantining for two weeks."
Said Jeong of Sungshin University, "It's disheartening, because many of us came without a choice. This was a difficult decision for a lot of students. We have families and are possibly even more worried about the virus because a lot of us are coming from high-risk countries. … I wish that people wouldn't jump to conclusions and automatically bad-mouth all of the students coming back home."
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Many master's degrees aren't worth the investment, research shows
Nearly half of master's degrees have a negative financial return, according to new research by the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, an economic research organization.
The study indicates that many graduate degree programs do not increase lifetime earnings enough to be worth it.
While 23% of bachelor’s degree programs yield a negative financial return on investment, 43% of two-year degrees and master’s degrees fail to deliver a return, according to the study by Preston Cooper, a senior fellow at FREOPP.
Cooper assessed the return on investment for 53,000 degree and certificate programs to determine whether a student’s lifetime earnings outweigh program costs and the risk of not completing their degree.
His findings show that a student’s field of study was the overriding indicator of return on investment at the undergraduate and graduate level.
Engineering, computer science and nursing bachelor’s degrees have high financial returns on investment, while programs in education, fine arts, psychology and English usually have low returns.
Graduate degrees in medicine and law tend to have strong payoffs. But a large share of master’s programs, including the MBA, frequently have low payoffs, according to Cooper.
Although workers with master’s degrees earn 16% more than those with only bachelor’s degrees, Cooper says the figure fails to account for students who had “higher preexisting earnings potential.”
“MBA students typically have high preexisting earnings potential, having often chosen high-ROI undergraduate majors such as finance and economics,” Cooper writes. “So the MBA adds little value on top of that.”
The study indicates that high starting salaries are predictors of high returns on investment. Degrees with starting salaries of $57,000 a year or more deliver the best lifetime returns.
But the return on investment of a degree can vary depending on the educational institution.
“Students interested in fields with low average pay can still find some schools that do well transforming those fields of study into high-paying careers,” Cooper writes.
The quality of an institution also matters, said William Tierney, professor emeritus of higher education at the University of Southern California.
“An MBA from Harvard is a likely ticket to a good job,” Tierney told VOA. “An MBA from the University of Phoenix, less so.”
But students pursue graduate programs for more than just financial reasons.
“Some degrees open up careers in fields that students may enjoy, such as in the performing arts,” Robert Kelchen, head of educational leadership at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, told VOA.
“Others can help gain access to social networks or simply help students learn about a topic that is of interest,” Kelchen added.
Cooper told VOA that it might make sense for students in degree programs with low returns on investment to switch majors if they can still graduate on time.
He found the worst outcome for a student’s return on investment is dropping out of college “because they must pay for one or more years’ tuition and spend time out of the labor force.”
Lawmakers who fund higher education have a responsibility in ensuring “higher education delivers on its promise of economic mobility,” Cooper said.
Nearly a third of federal funding, including Pell grants and student loans, pays for higher education programs that fail to provide students with a return on investment, according to the study.
Cooper’s view is that “some schools should shut down low-ROI programs and reallocate institutional resources to programs with a better return.”
“There's definitely this narrative out there that higher education is always worth it, and you should always try to get that extra degree because it will increase your earnings,” he told VOA. “That's reinforced by colleges who make lofty promises regarding their graduate degree programs' outcomes, which all too often fall short.”
Harvard students end protest as school agrees to discuss Gaza conflict
Protesters against the war between Israel and Hamas were voluntarily taking down their tents in Harvard Yard on Tuesday after university officials agreed to discuss their questions about the endowment, bringing a peaceful end to the kinds of demonstrations that were broken up by police on other campuses.
The student protest group Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine said in a statement that the encampment "outlasted its utility with respect to our demands." Meanwhile, Harvard University interim President Alan Garber agreed to pursue a meeting between protesters and university officials regarding the students' questions.
Students at many college campuses this spring set up similar encampments, calling for their schools to cut ties with Israel and businesses that support it.
The Israel-Hamas war began when Hamas and other militants stormed into southern Israel on October 7, killing some 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages. Palestinian militants still hold about 100 captives, and Israel's military has killed more than 35,000 people in Gaza, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which doesn't distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Harvard said its president and the dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Hopi Hoekstra, will meet with the protesters to discuss the conflict in the Middle East.
The protesters said they worked out an agreement to meet with university officials, including the Harvard Management Company, which oversees the world's largest academic endowment, valued at about $50 billion.
The protesters' statement said the students will set an agenda that includes discussions on disclosure, divestment, reinvestment and the creation of a Center for Palestine Studies. The students also said that Harvard has offered to retract suspensions of more than 20 students and student workers and back down on disciplinary measures faced by 60 more.
"Since its establishment three weeks ago, the encampment has both broadened and deepened Palestine solidarity organizing on campus," a spokesperson for the protesters said. "It has moved the needle on disclosure and divestment at Harvard."
