A kangaroo seems a friendly animal. As you know, a kangaroo has a front pocket. The front pocket has a relationship with their peculiar method of bringing up their young. A mother kangaroo takes care of her young kangaroo by putting it into her front pocket. When a young kangaroo is brought into the world, a young kangaroo only weighs 1 gram. Therefore, a young kangaroo is not capable of living independently. Then after 6 months, a young kangaroo finally comes out of his mother’s pocket. The young kangaroo is not a baby anymore.
Surprisingly, kangaroos are now appearing at universities. Actually, they are not real kangaroos. They are university students, who are living a parallel to life style of a young kangaroo. You may wonder what kind of student would be considered a ‘Kangaroo’, and think they must be juniors, because juniors are young. However, this is not the case. A ‘Kangaroo’ in university indicates a senior student, who is in their 4th year. Therefore, we called them Kangaroos which means the audience of kangaroo.
Of course, not all seniors are included in this group of unique individuals. The Kangaroos are just a subset group. You might have heard about Kangaroos many times. Originally, the Kangaroo group was single designation for those, who are living in their 20s or early 30s, and still live off their parents, even though they have jobs. An additional definition was later added, this group includes people, who depend on their parents due to lack of self-independence. Some people think of them as young kangaroos, which is not yet 6 months old. Now, there is a third definition of the Kangaroo.
A new type of Kangaroo is emerging. The new Kangaroo stays in university rejecting graduation, and continuing to pay more enrollment fees. The methods used by Kangaroos to postpone their graduation are various. For instance, they intentionally do not meet the graduation requirements, such as rejecting submission of assignment, shortage of units, and/or others. There is no official system to postpone graduation. The main reason why they want to postpone their graduation is so they can get a better chance at employment in a good enterprise of their choice.
This phenomenon has recently been supported by a survey conducted by the Korea National Statistical Office. According to this survey, the unemployment rate of the young generation has shown a steady state of decrease by 7 percent annually. In August 2007, the rate of unemployment was recorded at 6.5%. This rate was the largest decline since 2004 (about 8%). However, the survey also found that the number of the undergraduate, who are not graduating on schedule or at the end of their 4th year, is increasing compared to the annual average of students expected to graduate on time by about 100,000. In 2007, the number of youth in universities totaled 4.27 million. This is an increase over last year by 200,000. This phenomenon is not due to increased entrance quotas but from an increasing number of students, who postpone their graduation. In other words, there are many under represented students in the statistics, because they are just studying in the library, not preparing for graduation.
Chung-Ang University (CAU) is not an exception. According to statistical data, the number of cases of Temporary Absence from School increased from 2005 to 2007. The number of cases of students entering the military was excluded. In fact, the analysis is much exaggerated. There are various reasons why a student would take a Temporary Absence from School. However, it is hard to demonstrate what the real figures are for taking the absences for personal reasons such as sickness, accidents, and/or the other. As you see, the gap in the figures from 2005 to 2007 in Seoul Campus is more than 500 people. In the case of Anseong Campus, the figure increases by 200 people in 3 years, too. It is hard to explain this phenomenon through personal reasons. As the data suggests from the Korea National Statistical Office, the case of CAU can be interpreted within the same context.
Although you read the upper article, most people may not be able to understand why Kangaroos would postpone their graduation. However, it is mostly due to employment possibilities. The rumor that some large enterprises prefer students, who are going to graduate to those who have already graduated rose around university for a few years. For this reason, many seniors decided to become the Kangaroos.
The key point is that most enterprises prefer a graduate-to-be student to someone, who has already graduated. A graduate-to-be means a senior, who is still in university but ready to graduate. Although we cannot conclude what all enterprises do, we cannot deny their preferences. Let me ask you one question. If you were buying a fish from a wholesaler, which fish would you prefer to purchase? A freshly caught fish today or a fish caught yesterday? If both are the same species, we will purchase the former one, because the former one has a higher probability to be a better tasting fish than the latter one. Similarly, some enterprises have same thoughts about the conception of employment. According to one official of B Company, the enterprises cannot help preferring a graduate-to-be to a graduate if both have the same employable condition. Graduate-to-be students are likely to be more intelligent and have more potential than someone, who has already graduated. You see some graduates have already experienced failure in a previous employment. Since several companies have rejected the graduate, this gives the graduate a preconception about interviewers of other companies. Finally, interviewers do sometimes hesitate to hire the graduate because of their value. It is a graduate-to-be first experience in society. Therefore, they have a tendency to focus more for accumulation of their career and opportunities rather than amount of their paycheck. In contrast, some graduates have a tendency to want to earn more money and want to have high annual salary. As a result, the graduate prefers a large enterprise to small company. This fact affects the decision of the interviewers. For the point of view of the enterprise, they want to select talented brains, who will be a help to investment, earnings of their company.
However, it is not entirely true that there is no solution regarding the graduates’ employment concerns. The way to successful employment is not just one. We should keep one truth in mind. The truth is that the most important factor in successful employment is ability and potential. If you have more ability and knowledge than others do, scouts will seek you for hiring regardless of graduation status. We suggest accumulating experiences in your major. If possible, get experiences in various fields. Generally, a person who has both ability and career experience means ‘Experienced worker’ in your field. It is impossible to compare the value of the experienced man with that of the graduate-to-be.
The concern over employment is coming to its climax; the emerging new word is Kangaroo. All students want to be employed in a company they desire. Therefore, they do their best in every way to make their goals possible. I do not mean that postponing graduation is a bad idea. Merely, I desire you to think again, about whether you are making a decision rashly or not. Sometimes, diverting our future path is better than taking the present path, which you have now.
By Lee Won-jun
News reporter