Aftermath of the 3rd Cycle Diagnostic Assessment Was Significant... "Government to Lead Uniform Evaluation Reform"

Unprecedented Additional Selection After Basic Competency Assessment Aftermath
Assessment to Improve by Year-End... Plans to Hear Field Opinions
Strong Calls to Reform Funding 'Ranking Evaluations'
Ministry of Education Agrees on Need for Improvement... Coordination with Ministry of Economy and Finance Crucial

The aftermath of the 3rd cycle university basic competency diagnosis evaluation was significant. An unprecedented relief measure was also implemented, including some universities that failed to receive financial support. In line with the new government's policy, the Ministry of Education has announced changes to the university evaluation method. Universities, suffering from the dual hardships of frozen tuition fees and difficulties in recruiting new students, unanimously agree that they must break away from the Ministry of Education’s ‘ranking-style’ university evaluation.

On the 17th, the Ministry of Education additionally selected 13 universities, including Sungshin Women’s University, Inha University, Chugye University for the Arts, Gunsan University, Dongyang University, and Jungwon University, as general financial support universities. The basic competency diagnosis evaluation is a project that evaluates educational conditions and outcomes using quantitative and qualitative indicators to identify universities with educational capabilities and provide necessary funding for university innovation. Universities struggling financially due to a declining school-age population and frozen tuition fees desperately need budget allocation, and because failure results in being stigmatized as ‘failing universities,’ they spend hundreds of millions of won on consulting to prepare for the evaluation. Universities that failed the 3rd cycle evaluation in August last year strongly protested, questioning the fairness of the evaluation. Later, the National Assembly intervened to secure additional budget, increasing the number of supported universities from 147 to 160, and the additional selection process was concluded after nine months.

The Ministry of Education plans to develop improvement measures for the basic competency diagnosis evaluation by the end of this year. Vice Minister Jang Sang-yoon said, "We will reform the government-led uniform evaluation and gather field opinions to support the autonomous development of universities." However, there remains the task of narrowing differences with the Ministry of Economy and Finance. A Ministry of Education official explained, "Undergoing a large-scale evaluation ultimately results in filtering out only the marginal universities and providing support. The financial authorities’ basic stance is that without evaluation, budget support is impossible, so we are working to find common ground."

Universities have raised issues with the Ministry of Economy and Finance’s ‘ranking-style’ evaluation. There have been repeated suggestions to prioritize support for universities facing financial difficulties. Hong Won-hwa, chairman of the Korean Council for University Education, pointed out, "Instead of ranking universities to allocate university innovation support funds, it would be better to prioritize support for small and medium-sized universities in difficulty or universities with innovative plans, but the Ministry of Education’s evaluation criteria are excessively uniform."

Hwang Hong-gyu, former secretary-general of the Korean Council for University Education and a former expert committee member of the transition team, said, "University innovation project support funds should be regarded as compensatory support for the freezing of university tuition fees. If this structure continues, only small and medium-sized universities will suffer. Except for universities restricted from financial support, innovation project support funds should be provided to all universities."

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