Busan City Emerges as Pilot City for ‘RISE’ Holding University Administrative and Financial Authority

Ministry of Education Selected for 'Regional Innovation-Centered University Support System' Competition

Delegation of Administrative and Financial Authority to 7 Cities and Provinces Including Daegu, Gyeongnam, and Gyeongbuk

Busan City has been selected for a pilot project in which local governments support universities by receiving administrative and financial authority delegated from the central government.

Busan City (Mayor Park Hyung-jun) announced on the 8th that it was selected in the Ministry of Education's call for pilot regions for the Regional Innovation System & Education (RISE) project.

The local governments selected in this call include Busan, Daegu, Gyeongnam, Gyeongbuk, Jeonnam, Jeonbuk, and Chungbuk.

RISE is a system that delegates administrative and financial authority for university support to local governments, promoting mutual growth of regions and universities through strategic support linked to regional development. It is a core axis of the higher education reform direction announced by the government this year.

Busan City's RISE Promotion Plan.

Ahead of its full implementation in 2025, a total of 13 metropolitan local governments applied for this two-year pilot operation, and after the first document screening and the second face-to-face evaluation, seven local governments including Busan were finally selected.

With the designation as a pilot region, Busan City will have greatly expanded autonomy in the project promotion process, including direct participation in the planning, evaluation, and coordination of government financial projects, enabling effective implementation of projects based on local industry and corporate demands.

Earlier, on February 28, Busan secured 150 billion KRW in national funding over five years by winning the university-local government cooperation-based regional innovation project (RIS), and this selection for the pilot project will further accelerate its momentum.

The designation as a pilot region is expected to provide an opportunity for crisis overcoming and innovation for regional universities facing financial difficulties due to a declining school-age population.

In the future, it is anticipated that Busan will gain advantages in securing project funds, such as receiving additional points when attracting major government financial support projects like Glocal Universities, and that regulatory special cases will open new paths for academic structure reforms, including the establishment of convergence majors in advanced future industry fields.

Busan City plans to establish a university support plan linked to regional development over four months until the end of June, and through co-design coordination with the Ministry of Education, including discovering various regulatory innovation tasks, will prepare a mid- to long-term roadmap. Starting in July, Busan will sign a RISE agreement with the Ministry of Education and officially launch the RISE system, including designation as a higher education regulatory special zone.

Mayor Park Hyung-jun of Busan said, “Through the selection as a RISE pilot region, we expect the Busan-type industry-academia-government cooperation policy to gain more momentum. We will proactively establish a region-led university support system and promote mutual growth with regional universities.”

The mayor added, “Based on nurturing local talent, we will gather companies and various foreign resources in Busan, integrate and connect capabilities and infrastructure, and lead the creation of an industry-academia-government innovation model that can compete with the metropolitan area.”

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