Law School Quota Increased to 2,000

The ongoing controversy over establishing a new law school system seems to have subsided after the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development decided to increase the student quota to 2,000, starting in 2009.

The Education Ministry yesterday submitted to the National Assembly a revised plan which increased the quota to 2,000 from the originally fixed quota of 1,500.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Kim Shin-il said in a briefing, “According to our original plan, the enrollment quota would start with 1,500 in 2009 and gradually increase to 2,000 by 2013. However, we decided to raise the number in the face of growing opposition from universities and civic groups, and to advance the enhancement of the nation’s legal services. The number of students of three-year graduate law schools, which will open in March 2009, is set at 2,000.”

He added that the quota could be adjusted in the near future when the law school system is stabilized and a social consensus is reached on the appropriate number of law practitioners in the country.

Chairman of the Education Committee at the National Assembly, Gwon Cheol-hyeon, said regarding this announcement, “The ministry is advised to draw its final conclusions after collecting opinions from various circles, rather than finalizing the plan with today’s report to the National Assembly.”

Most educational committee members seemed to accept the revised version of the plan, and called on the government to come up with additional measures to further increase the student quota beyond 2010. Still, lawmaker Lee Ju-ho from the GNP and lawmaker Choi Sun-yeong of the Democratic Labor Party argued that the total enrollment number should be set at over 3,000, saying that they would pursue another revision of the law school quota.

The education ministry decided to make an official announcement of the revised plan on October 30, and to hasten the authorization procedure in order to finalize its preliminary decision until January next year.

Concerning these measures, responses from universities across the country have been mixed. While the universities in the Seoul and metropolitan areas rejected the proposed plan, the deans of provincial universities agreed to accept it, giving rise to a rupture in their joint response to the government measure.

A law school emergency meeting comprising of deans of law schools nationwide and the association of law professors threatened to boycott the introduction of the law school system if the ministry officially revealed a 2,000 student quota, urging the ministry to first announce the authorization criteria of law schools and then finalize the quota at the end of November after collecting enough opinions.

Civic associations and the Korean Federation of Teachers` Associations also criticized the education ministry for providing a half-baked measure, calling on the Parliament to roll up its sleeves to expand the total quota.

foryou@donga.com