2014 Volume 10 Issue 1 Pages 47-68
The National Center Test (NCT) has been affected by the shrinking population of 18-year-olds and the increase in the number of participating private universities in the last quarter of a century. This study analyzes the changes in the usages of the NCT so as to capture the changes in its social roles and functions. First, the national analysis suggested that there were two layers of applicants: the core applicants whose number has rarely changed over the past 25 years and the new types of the applicants who utilized the NCT in different ways. Second, the ratio of applicants who took the NCT and universities to which they went were analyzed for each prefecture. In the results, regionally distinctive patterns indicated that the NCT was utilized differently in different regions. Furthermore, regionally predicted populations of 18-years-olds suggested that the admission system must be planned and future directions proposed from regional perspectives.
