Ministry of Education Abolishes Graduate Enrollment Increase Requirements for Non-Capital Region Universities to Address Regional Extinction Crisis

Exclusion of 4 Major Requirements for Enrollment Increase
Abolition of Graduate School Faculty Securing Rate Requirement
Expansion of Graduate School Information Disclosure Scope

The Ministry of Education will abolish the enrollment increase requirements to address the crisis of depopulation in graduate schools outside the metropolitan area. The aim is to enhance the autonomy of graduate school enrollment management by removing regulations. Along with this, the ministry will also abolish the faculty recruitment rate requirement for graduate schools overall and relax the adjustment ratio between master's and doctoral enrollment quotas.

On the 19th, the Ministry of Education announced a legislative notice for partial amendments to the 'Regulations on University Establishment and Operation' and revealed plans to strengthen the disclosure of information on graduate schools' education and research performance.

First, for graduate schools outside the metropolitan area, the four major requirements for enrollment increases will be excluded, allowing autonomous enrollment increases. The current nationwide common four major requirements for undergraduate and graduate schools are ▲ campus land (meeting building-related legal requirements) ▲ classrooms (12㎡ for humanities and social sciences, 14㎡ for others) ▲ faculty (25 for humanities and social sciences, 20 for natural sciences, engineering, and arts, 8 for medicine) ▲ basic property for profit (securing tuition and fee income or university support of at least 2.8% of tuition and fee income). These apply commonly to general, professional, and special graduate schools.

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Additionally, the current faculty recruitment rate requirement for graduate schools (at least 65% faculty recruitment rate, maintaining the previous year's level after mutual adjustment) will be abolished. The master's-to-doctoral enrollment adjustment ratio will be relaxed from 2:1 to 1:1.

The scope and content of information disclosure on graduate schools' education and research performance will be expanded, and the method of providing graduate school information will be improved to be more demand-oriented. Additional disclosure information such as full-time faculty research achievements and research fund acquisition by department will be added to graduate schools, and new disclosure items related to graduate school performance will be identified. Furthermore, the method of providing education and research performance information services based on disclosed data will be improved.

The Ministry of Education plans to complete the amendment of regulations in the first half of next year and apply them from the second half. Regarding the expansion of disclosed information and improvement of information provision, the ministry aims to reflect these changes in the system by 2025.

Lee Ju-ho, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education, stated, "We must newly establish a higher education ecosystem in response to changes in the policy environment, and the Ministry of Education will continue efforts to innovate university regulations so that universities (and graduate schools) can autonomously pursue strategic specialization and structural improvement."

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