'Private Universities as Private, National Universities as National'... Yoon Hee-sook's University Reform Pledge

Autonomy in Operations Instead of Cutting Financial Support for Private Universities
Promotion of University Restructuring
Support and Deregulation for Regional National Universities

Yoon Hee-sook, Member of the People Power Party. / Photo by Yoon Dong-ju doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Naju-seok] Yoon Hee-sook, a presidential candidate from the People Power Party, pledged on the 12th an education reform focused on redefining the roles of national and private universities. Instead of providing financial support to private universities, all operational matters such as the ratio of regular admissions to early admissions will be left to the private universities.

On this day, Representative Yoon announced her education pledge regarding university reform through social media (SNS). The core of this education pledge is aligned with the ‘redefinition of the roles of national and private universities.’

Yoon stated, "We will liberalize university admissions and, under the principle of ‘NO interference, NO support’ for private universities, completely abolish regulations on tuition fees, enrollment quotas, etc., to enhance the quality of education through competition among universities," adding, "The Ministry of Education’s involvement in admissions will be excluded, and universities will be fully responsible for deciding the ratio between early and regular admissions." Furthermore, she said, "Private universities will be allowed to autonomously decide all major operational matters such as tuition fees and enrollment quotas."

She also expressed her intention to ease the way for university restructuring in response to the shrinking school-age population. She said, "We will open an exit for the dissolution of school corporations to induce proactive restructuring centered on educational demand," and "We will facilitate the disposal of remaining assets upon dissolution of school corporations and allow some of the assets to be allocated to the founders, thereby opening an exit." This means that university founders will be able to retain part of the assets when closing down schools.

Regarding regional national universities, she promised to strengthen support and ease regulations. She said, "We will create good jobs and revitalize the regional economy by establishing clusters centered on national universities," and "We will allow the disposal of idle university land and expand tax support to activate the attraction of companies and research institutes linked to campuses." She continued, "Through such cluster formation, we will make them pillars for creating good jobs and regional economic development."

She also revealed plans to increase budget support for regional base national universities. Yoon said, "We will raise the per-student budget support for base national universities to the level of Seoul National University (2.2 times the current amount) and improve the quality of education to make them the main drivers of regional development," adding, "At least 80% of students will receive full tuition support."

Regarding this pledge, Yoon stated, "Our universities are sinking now," and "We will correct the Ministry of Education’s ‘constant regulations’ that suffocate universities and the lack of funding." She argued, "The government froze tuition fees under the slogan of half-price tuition, while tying the financial resources with various regulations to control universities," and "As a result, the damage was directly passed on to students who are left behind by the times and find it difficult to get jobs."

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