Ministry to tighten restructuring to weed out underperforming schools


Universities found to have committed admission scams and academic irregularities such as hiring unqualified faculty or giving undeserved grades will face a cut of up to 10 percent in their freshmen enrollment, the Education Ministry said Sunday.

Schools committing irregularities will face penalties including bans on freshmen recruitment in the first stage and cuts in their number in the second stage, according to a revised law on higher education, expected to take effect in March.

“As the penalties to be given to schools for misconduct have been clarified by law, we expect schools’ opposition to enforcement against campus irregularities to subside and it will prevent schools from violating laws in the future,” said an education official.

The cut in the number of freshmen may vary from 3 to 10 percent.

The cases facing penalty include admission scams, improper recruitment of faculty and grade fraud.

Schools that give credits to students who failed to meet the required class attendance, or that punish students without undergoing proper procedure, or which violate admission procedures will be forced to cut in freshmen enrollment by 5-10 percent of the quota.

Schools that have not disclosed the necessary information on school management, failed to follow remedy orders after a state audit and accept more students than in their quotas will be subject to penalties, according to officials.

The government has tightened rules on universities and continues to axe underperforming schools in light of graduates’ unemployment, student enrollment and number of faculty members. The college restructuring committee has come up with a package of measures to raise competitiveness in higher education amid the trend that student enrollment continues to decrease due to a lower birth rate.

Education Minister Lee Ju-ho said recently that they will continue to further college restructuring steps next year to strengthen viable schools while weeding out underperforming schools that are not likely to improve.

But opponents say the government-led restructuring will undermine academic autonomy and commercialize universities. Criticism has mounted recently over some Seoul-based schools undergoing reforms as they abolished departments with lower employment rates for graduates as they prepare to meet the criteria set by the college restructuring committee.

By Lee Woo-young  (wylee@heraldcorp.com)