This study aims to investigate the establishment and the development of the higher
education system in North Korea from 1945 to 1967, focusing on the aspects of the Soviet
Union's education models that were transferred and localized in North Korea. During the
nation-building period after the liberation from Japan, North Korea established its higher
education system with the assistance of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union's strong
influence on the higher education system of North Korea can be explained by the two
factors, including the Soviet Union's interest to expand its long-term political power in the
Korean peninsula during the Cold War, and North Korea's emergent need to stabilize its
society, especially in competition with South Korea. During the 1940s, North Korea
adopted the Soviet type university model to a large extent, but the Soviet Union's influence
began to be diminished from mid-1950s, when Kim Il Sung strengthened his political grip
in North Korean domestic politics. After mid-1950s, North Korea's socialist education
model, based on Marxism-Leninism, began to be replaced with its unique educational
ideology, called Juche Sasang. However, this change focused on the contents of the
education, not the structure. Consequently, the higher education system of North Korea
began to turn away from embracing diversity in academic thoughts and ideologies in its
curricula, and became more ideologically oriented and resistant to external influence
including that of the Soviet Union.