Graduates of Top 3 Universities Dominate Civil Service

Some 648 or 42.9 percent of 1,510 high-ranking government officials have graduated from Korea's three top universities Seoul National, Korea and Yonsei.

The proportion of senior officials from those three schools is growing, from 36.5 percent in 2006 to 41.6 percent in 2008.

According to a report submitted by Ministry of Public Administration and Security Thursday to Grand National party lawmaker Lee Eun-jae from the Public Administration and Security Committee, 421 senior officials or 27.8 percent graduated from Seoul National University, followed by 122 (8 percent) from Korea University, 105 (6.9 percent) from Yonsei University, 88 from Sungkyunkwan University, 71 from the Korea Military Academy, 71 from Korea National Open University, and 67 from Hanyang University.

An official at the ministry said, "KMA graduates were often employed as deputy directors during the military governments, and most open university graduates became government workers with only a high school diploma and then continued their studies. That's why the two schools have high figures."

The number of SNU graduates rose from 405 last year to 421. Korea University graduates increased from 116 to 122. The number of Yonsei graduates was the same at 105. The top 10 universities were the same as last year's and their rankings were nearly the same.

To deal with the problem of a dominant handful of universities, "we should improve the recruitment process so that diverse talents can advance to senior government positions," Lee said.