Outstanding issues in bilateral economic relations between Australia and South Korea
This article examines and analyses the main issues in the current bilateral economic relations between Australia and South Korea, particularly focusing on the Korean perspective. Above all, the trade imbalance continuously favouring Australia has been an issue of great concern on the part of South Korea. Australia and South Korea have shown disagreement over the lopsided trade issue, regarding attitude, approach and standpoint in addressing it. While the Korean side broadly converges on the view that the bilateral trade imbalance needs to be redressed, there are four differing viewpoints on explaining the lopsided bilateral trade: (i) the Korean government's view; (ii) the Korean business sector's view; (iii) the relevance of culture; (iv) Korea's favourable perception of Australia. This paper seeks to answer an important question in the context of the two nations' economic/trade relationship: why South Korea has ever engaged with Australia on good terms, albeit with disadvantageous trade relations. In this case, the nexus of economics and politico‐security is largely in action. That is, on one plane, South Korea is ranked as an important trading partner and a major export market of Australia. On another plane, South Korea politically needs strong allies like Australia which can give an unswerving support for it in both the regional and international arenas.
Country report: Australia
The last 10 years has been an interesting time for Australian medical education despite reduced funding.
A selection test for Australian graduate‐entry medical schools
One of the selection criteria for the three Australian medical schools with graduate‐entry programs is performance in a common entry test, the Graduate Australian Medical School Admissions Test (GAMSAT). We found that scores for GAMSAT in 1996 (its second year) varied significantly with candidate sex, age, highest degree level and main subject in first degree. Mean scores were highest for men, younger candidates, honours graduates and those with a physical sciences background. However, arts and social sciences graduates (9.8% of applicants) comprised 11.4% of the 200 top‐scoring candidates.