[Opinion] The Slaves in Campus

The social status of professors in Korea is higher than the most of the countries in the world. Professors are given the first primacy when forming various committees under the influence of government. The experts appearing in various communication systems are exclusively professors. The annual salary received by the professors in Korea is relatively higher when compared with the occupational wages of other countries. An average annual salary of an associate professor is about 50 million won but this will increase with the extra incomes from researches and many others. Some compares the professors in current Korean society as the scholars of the Chosun Dynasty. As the scholars spoke out their `righteous voices` to the king, the professors must speak out criticisms as an intellectual group and may also advance to the governmental positions upon request.

* There are about 60,000 professors in Korea including the professors from the junior colleges. Besides these professors, there are 84,000 part time lecturers and 26,000 teachers` assistants, supporting the professors while bearing a part of education responsibilities. The status and the treatment between the professors and the part time lecturers are extremely different. The part time lecturers receive 23,000 won per hour as a lecture fee but this is just like a transportation expense. While the title as a professor is considered as honorable, the part time lecturers must endure the callings as a `packman` or a `slave in a campus` in order to pass through the difficult path towards becoming a professor.

* The problem regarding the part time lecturers lies at the core of the structural problem of the universities. There still exist the Confucian order of the relation between masters and disciples in the universities. Criticizing the masters and the senior professors are strictly prohibited and if this is disobeyed, one has to bear the disadvantages. If the part time lecturer wants to advance to the level of being a professor, he/she needs to accept this kind of order. This kind of pre-modern feature of the universities where the criticisms and the discussions are the life vein surely calls for decrease in the international competitiveness of our universities. Another problem is caused when the part time lecturers look for second jobs under harsh financial conditions thus neglect the research duties. This is the major reason of the research ability of universities getting destroyed day by day.

* A part time lecturer who had a monthly income of 400,000 won committed suicide. It seems like the financial difficulty has driven him/her to death. Anybody who is currently working or once worked as a part time lecture will be sympathized with this situation. The only fault committed by the part time lecturers is their purse of scholarship. If their suffering accumulates even more hereafter, who would choose the harsh road of scholarship? If this group starts to look for job opportunities in overseas, then this becomes the brain drain. The universities must be active in improving the treatment of lecturers and expanding the professor employment. However, since the universities are experiencing management crisis, who would care about these part time lecturers?

chansik@donga.com