Ahn Byong-man (8 February 1941 – 31 May 2022) was a South Korean

academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

, and the former President of

Hankuk University of Foreign Studies Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (abbreviated as HUFS; ) is a Private university, private research university in Seoul, South Korea. The university currently teaches 45 foreign languages. In addition, it contains studies in humanities, law, ...

. He received his bachelor's and master's degrees from the

Seoul National University Seoul National University (SNU; ) is a public university, public research university in Seoul, South Korea. It is one of the SKY (universities), SKY universities and a part of the Flagship Korean National Universities. The university's main c ...

in 1964 and 1967, and went on to the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...

for doctoral studies, graduating in 1973. In 1975 he joined the faculty of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

, South Korea. While at this institution he served as the Dean of Student Affairs, Dean of the Graduate School, and in 1994 he was named president. He served in this capacity until 2004. Ahn was a

Fulbright The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...

Scholar-in-Residence at the

University of Delaware The University of Delaware (colloquially known as UD, UDel, or Delaware) is a Statutory college#Delaware, privately governed, state-assisted Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Newark, Delaware, United States. UD offers f ...

, and received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from the University of Delaware in 2004. He was also a visiting professor at the university. He also received a University of Florida Distinguished Alumnus Award in May 2005. A non-party politician, he served as Minister for Education, Science and Technology in the

Lee Myung-bak government The Cabinet of Lee Myung-bak () was the fifth government of the History of South Korea#Sixth Republic (1988–present), Sixth Republic of South Korea. It took office on 25 February 2008 after Lee Myung-bak's victory in the 2007 South Korean presid ...

from 6 August 2008 until 30 August 2010. During his tenure, he pushed through an ambitious reform of English-as-a-foreign-language education in South Korea to reduce the reliance on

hagwon (; ) is a Korean term for a for-profit private educational institution. They are commonly likened to cram schools. Some consider ''hagwons'' as private language centers or academies operated like businesses apart from the South Korean public sch ...

in teaching the language. One of the first steps he took in this regard was to begin the development of a new English proficiency test modeled on Japan's STEP Eiken test, the

National English Ability Test National English Ability Test (NEAT) is a test of ability to understand and use English. The test was developed in South Korea by the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation (KICE). It provides for testing in speaking, listening, writing, and ...

, with the aim of replacing the

TOEIC The Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) is an international standardized test of English language proficiency for non-native speakers. It is intentionally designed to measure the everyday English skills of people working in an ...

and

TOEFL Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL ) is a standardized test to measure the English language ability of non-native speakers wishing to enroll in English-speaking universities. The test is accepted by more than 11,000 universities an ...

for domestic purposes such as university admissions and job candidate selection. Around the same time, he also requested the resignations of seven senior officials in the Ministry.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ahn, Byong-man 1941 births 2022 deaths Academics from Seoul Kyunggi High School alumni Seoul National University School of Law alumni University of Florida alumni Academic staff of Myongji University South Korean political scientists Presidents of universities and colleges in South Korea Ministers of education of South Korea Academic staff of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies Juksan An clan