Jeonnam Province Draws 'Blueprint' to Overcome Crisis of Local Universities

Cooperative Agreement for Win-Win Collaboration Among Provincial Council, Provincial Office of Education, Cities and Counties, and Local Universities

[Muan=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] Jeonnam Province has drawn a blueprint to overcome the crisis of local universities.

On the 26th, the province announced that it held a regional and local university win-win cooperation agreement ceremony attended by about 30 people, including Governor Kim Young-rok, Provincial Council Chairman Kim Han-jong, Superintendent of Education Jang Seok-woong, Chairman of the Jeonnam Mayors and Governors Council Yoo Geun-gi, and Chairman of the Gwangju-Jeonnam Regional University Presidents Council Park Seong-hyun.

The agreement ceremony, which was broadcast live on Jeonnam Province’s official YouTube channel ‘Eutteum Jeonnam Tube,’ involved 32 organizations including Jeonnam Province, the Provincial Council, the Office of Education, 9 cities and counties, and 20 universities.

The purpose is to overcome the crisis of local universities through mutual cooperation between the region and universities. The 9 cities and counties are Mokpo-si, Yeosu-si, Suncheon-si, Naju-si, Gwangyang-si, Damyang-gun, Gokseong-gun, Yeongam-gun, and Muan-gun, where regional universities are located.

These organizations agreed to jointly cooperate on three tasks for fostering local talent to lead the development of Jeonnam, recognizing the crisis of local universities caused by the decline in school-age population and the preference for metropolitan universities.

The three joint cooperation tasks are ▲ establishing a cooperative governance through the formation of a ‘win-win cooperation council’ ▲ discovering policy tasks and institutional improvements for fostering local universities ▲ building a cooperative system for nurturing core regional talent.

In particular, this agreement is meaningful in that the participating organizations decided to comprehensively diagnose the regional ecosystem and prepare solutions.

Governor Kim said, “The crisis of universities is the crisis of the region, so to overcome this, it is necessary to create a regional ecosystem including local education, jobs, and living conditions,” and emphasized, “Let’s form a win-win cooperation council with cities, counties, and universities to overcome the current crisis faced by local universities together.”

Park Seong-hyun, Chairman of the Gwangju-Jeonnam Regional University Presidents Council, said, “The crisis of local universities started a long time ago and has led to a regional crisis,” and added, “Let’s establish a university cooperation group to overcome the crisis together with the region and local universities.”

Jeonnam Province plans to form a regional and university win-win development promotion team to take the lead in expanding university financial support and improving systems, and to promote the development of joint curricula for nurturing talent in specialized industries such as biomedical and new energy industries, which are Jeonnam’s core strategic industries.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.