This paper aims to unravel cultural meanings behind the practices of quality enhancement in a process of transition to higher vocational education and integrated relationships of history, economy, societal and political systems, geo-demographic status and beliefs. In order to achieve this overall goal, this study requires (1) identifying the concepts of quality differently perceived and the changing role and responsibilities of engineering sector of the higher vocational education to enhance the quality in Finland (Ammattikorkeakoulu, Polytechnic) and South Korea (Korea Polytechnic/University Colleges/Korea Polytechnic University) and their needs of labour market, (2) exploring how different polytechnic engineering education in Finland and South Korea have defined their positions and relevance to establish their quality in the dynamic of society and working life.

Under all considerations, the main research question is as follows; what underlying cultural factors between Finland and South Korea in terms of institutional identities and the meaning of higher vocational (professional) education can be traced behind the strategic solutions, negotiation and influencing patterns of quality and competence(y)-based educational policies and practices?

I took first a culturally sensitive historicizing approach (historical institutionalism) with a view to understanding complexities and discursive dimensions worked in transitions of reform process to enhance the quality of higher vocational education with different traditions and cultures (Foucault, M. 1982; Heikkinen, A. 1999, 2012; Koopman, C. 2013). However, it does not explain the specific individual behavior under the institutional constraints, and after all it underplays the creative role of different, hidden individual actors only by focusing on the macroscopic appearance of complex institutional contexts to explain social phenomena.

And then I applied “Actor-Network” approach, called ANT, to speculate the endogenous and exogenous factors to influence the relations of different, visible and invisible actors under transnational lifelong learning policy (Fenwick, T. & Richard, E. 2010; Latour B. 2005, 2013). Furthermore, I applied this ANT into the “complexity theory” covered in a field of education and social science (Mason, M. 2008; Bryan D. & Callaghan, G. 2014).

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