The statement for more autonomy by private college principals

Principals of 10 major private universities in Seoul harshly criticized the government on Monday during the launching ceremony of the "Future University Forum" held at Yonsei University. They blamed that the government-led college entrance system and restructuring plan have damaged the competitiveness of Korean higher education and brought about today’s crisis. It is meaningful in that major universities have expressively denounced the so called "taming" of colleges by the Ministry of Education associated with funding projects.

The statement pointed out how the government’s regulation and intervention hold back the higher education system. The essence is that the institutions have little autonomy in terms of recruitment and funding due to excessive government control. Some also complained about inconsistency of policies, constantly changing from "promote cultural education" to "encourage entrepreneurship" and different funding policies, making it difficult for the schools to develop long-term plans. The current funding initiative is oriented at the so called "Prime Projects" to promote science and engineering, represented by Advancement of College Education (ACE) and CORE (College of humanities' Research and Education), with a budget of up to 2 trillion won (1.69 billion U.S. dollars). This project is known to have triggered cases where failing colleges hire principals who retired from the Education Ministry to get more funds. Including employment rate of graduates in the eval‎uation criteria is also criticized as inconsistent with the aim to encourage young entrepreneurship.

Colleges are facing financial difficulties due to the government’s efforts to curb tuition raise and the pledge towards "half tuition." That is why they are focusing more on unnecessary race to get more "carrots" instead of better education. British Prime Minister David Cameron abolished the cap on tuition during his early term despite strong opposition from the youth. It was to allow institutions to hire good teachers and raise the quality of education by giving autonomy to increase tuitions up to three folds.

Self-criticism was also included, especially on how Korean professors focus on keeping their authority or benefits, while world-class institutions strive to benefit society by providing free online lectures to share knowledge.

고미석기자 mskoh119@donga.com