Although most Koreans attribute the zeal for education, or more precisely with prestige
degrees, to the nation’s “Confucian” cultural heritage, the origins of education fever, are
complex.5
These origins are found in premodern values that equated learning with moral
perfection and social prestige; in the Western, especially American ideas of progressive
education; in the Japanese colonial experience that created a pent-up demand for education
before 1945; in the fluidity of Korean society from the 1930s; and in South Korean educational
policies that promoted open access to all levels of schooling