The Ministry of Education said Wednesday that it planned to increase financial support for universities to 262 billion won ($236.6 million) this year, up 11.5 percent from a year ago.

Of that, 143.7 billion won, up nearly 16 percent a year ago, will be allocated to schools outside of Seoul, the ministry said.

Since 2010, the ministry has selected universities under the Advancement of College Education program to urge schools to focus more on effective teaching, allotting 3 billion won in annual state subsidies for four years under the program.

This year the ministry will recommend that universities spend more of their state funding on supporting student ventures in line with the Park Geun-hye administration’s creative economy initiative to promote new growth industries.

The government will obligate the schools to spend more than 30 percent of the subsidies on employment, cooperation with industries, and helping students start up their own businesses, the ministry said in its annual policy guidelines to aid struggling local institutions.

“This year, we are putting more weight on students’ opportunities to create their own businesses whereas last year’s focus was largely on employment,” a ministry official told The Korea Herald.

The official added that for more effective operation of the funding program, the number of recipient colleges would be reduced to 80 from last year’s 97.

By Suk Gee-hyun (monicasuk@heraldcorp.com)