University Restructuring Starts Next Month

A blueprint for university restructuring will be prepared by the end of this month, including legislation of a special law and the establishment of an organization assuming full charge of facilitating the structural reform of universities in Korea, which has been steadily fostered by Kim Jin-pyo, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education and Human Resources Development.

The Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development (MEHRD) announced yesterday that it would start to conduct university restructuring in the new school term in March on the basis of the framework that will be completed this month.

The MEHRD is drawing up the restructuring plan by regional groups to organize “the Committee for Structural Reform of National Universities,” which includes the heads of national universities, local government bodies, industrial communities, and civic groups.

In addition, legislation of a special law on university restructuring will preliminarily be announced this month. The special law would cover property disposition in mergers or liquidation of private universities and some indicators for critical situations of insolvent private university foundations.

The MEHRD will build an online portal at the Korea Foundation for the Promotion of Private Schools for making public reports on budget and final accounting of private universities in a bundle, which they themselves have already opened to public. The open items at the online portal will include university expenses and a report on business analysis.

According to the MEHRD, it will allocate a total of 60 billion won to two to three national universities promoting the merger, or 20 billion won to each for two to four years, using 100 billion won of this year’s budget.

A total of 40 billion won will also be allotted to 10 to 15 national or private universities and colleges leading the structural reform, consisting of two to eight billion won to each.

In-Chul Lee inchul@donga.com