Inha University Stigmatized as 'Substandard University'... Students Voice Frustration and Protest

Ministry of Education Announces Preliminary Results of Basic Competency Assessment
Universities That Fail Will Not Receive Government Support

Photo by Inha University Homepage Free Board Capture

[Asia Economy Reporter Na Ye-eun] The aftermath of the Ministry of Education's announcement of the 'University Basic Competency Diagnosis' preliminary results is intense. Especially after the failure of Inha University, considered a prestigious university in the Incheon area, thousands of posts have been uploaded on Inha University's official website and Inha University Everytime.

Earlier, on the 17th, the Ministry of Education announced through the '2021 University Basic Competency Diagnosis' preliminary results that 233 universities, including 136 general universities and 97 junior colleges, corresponding to the top 73%, were selected as general financial support universities. As a result, 52 universities, corresponding to the bottom 27%, will no longer receive general financial support from the government. The list of those who failed includes well-known universities in the metropolitan area such as Inha University, Sungshin Women's University, Yongin University, and Suwon University, causing shock.

Universities selected for general financial support will receive support for the University Innovation Support Project (general financial support) from 2022 to 2024. This year, general universities and junior colleges received an average of 4.83 billion KRW and 3.75 billion KRW in support, respectively.

Meanwhile, on the 18th, posts titled "Where should Inha University's head be facing?", "I am so frustrated that I have to say something," and "Surely you are not leaving work on time (regular departure) today as well, right?" were posted on Inha University's bulletin board. Students are demanding the school explain the reasons for the failure and the countermeasures with a frustrated heart.

In response, Jeon Seung-hwan, the president of the student council, said he requested information disclosure from Inha University and stated, "The more we review the data, the more we reaffirm that our university has a proper curriculum and corresponding achievements, so we cannot accept the evaluation result that the school lacks basic competency," adding, "The reality is that the cause of the point deduction has not even been identified. There is not even a minimum explanation as to why we received this score."

He continued, "Our strength is proven by being ranked first in the quantitative indicator ACE+ project performance and receiving an A grade in the University Innovation Support Project. Is this truly a fair evaluation? Who, on what grounds, has so severely damaged our university's pride?" he raised his voice.

Photo by Inha University

Meanwhile, Inha University stated on the previous day (17th), immediately after the Ministry of Education's announcement, that it could not accept the preliminary results. Inha University said, "We received perfect scores on all quantitative indicators such as education expense return rate, new student enrollment rate, current student enrollment rate, and graduate employment rate," and added, "We will request a re-evaluation through an objection to this result." In other words, the atmosphere is that they got a perfect score on the written part but were rejected in the interview.

Inha University also explained in its statement, "Inha University has been selected for government-funded projects such as the 4th phase BK21+ project and the University Innovation Support Project and has received excellent evaluations. It is a prestigious private university accredited by the Korean Council for University Education's institutional evaluation," and "We received perfect scores on all quantitative indicators such as education expense return rate, new student enrollment rate, current student enrollment rate, and graduate employment rate."

They added, "This incomprehensible negative evaluation result is absolutely unacceptable in light of our continuous efforts and objective achievements so far," and "Along with pointing out the unfairness of the evaluation, we will strongly raise objections reflecting the excellence of our education."

Meanwhile, according to the Ministry of Education, the final results will be announced around the end of this month.

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