Recently, there has been renewed talk of privatising South Korea’s state universities. This month’s faculty column aims to give readers the facts about privatisation – or ‘acquiring the status of a legal personality’ (법인화), as it is euphemistically called – so that you can make informed judgements about what should happen.
Proponents of privatization argue, firstly, that they want state universities to be more “efficient”. Currently, faculty members have the status of civil servants. Tenured professors, equipped with an “iron rice bowl”, cannot be dismissed. Supporters of privatization feel that those with such a high level of job security are more likely to idle their time away, reading books and chatting with students, rather than behaving efficiently. In other words, proponents of privatization would like to see professors who behave more like entrepreneurs.
The second advantage of privatisation, say its advocates, is that universities will have greater “freedom”.  Instead of being constrained by government supervision, the current model of privatization gives universities control over how they spend money and over the manner in which they recruit staff.
Thirdly – and here I am reminded of the situation in the country I’m from, the UK – there is the problem of funding for higher education. Given its limited budget, central government struggles to support state universities. Privatizing universities would give the universities responsibility for fundraising, lifting this financial burden from the government’s shoulders.
Critics and sceptics of privatization see things differently. Firstly, although President Lee Myung-bak’s administration is known to favour a “business-friendly” approach, the business model does not always harmonise with intellectual life. Worthy subjects such as philosophy, anthropology and other humanities and social sciences are not necessarily compatible with an entrepreneurial spirit. Although posing impractical questions may be a luxury, isn’t it one that needs to exist in a civilized society? Indeed, isn’t contemplation one of the activities that define civilization?
Secondly, sceptics of privatization question the freedom that a privatized university would be granted. According to the proposed model for privatization, the university’s Board of Councillors would be replaced by board members, more than half of whom the Ministry of Education would appoint. If the government’s true aim is to increase state universities’ freedom, such freedom could surely be expanded without privatization.
Thirdly, critics argue that the results of privatization in Japan have been largely negative – and statistics appear to support this claim. In 2004, all of Japan’s state universities went private. A recent study indicated that former state universities in Japan had reduced the number of faculty members while increasing their employment of short-term staff. Thanks to reduced funding for research, the number of papers published by Japanese universities after privatisation fell by around twenty percent. Japan’s newly privatized universities have also slipped in international rankings.
As for the impact that privatization would have on tuition fees, this remains unclear: as the government has promised to subsidize state universities after privatization. However, we know that politicians do not always live up to their promises – and administrations change. This is true not only in South Korea, but around the world: in the UK, many voters were furious at the Lib Dems’ willingness to triple university tuition fees after making very different pre-election promises.
Finally, it may be helpful to consider the behaviour of other state universities in Korea. Seoul National University has been set on the road to privatization by legislation passed in December 2010 – but question marks hang over the legality of this legislation, which critics say was ‘sneaked through’ Parliament. Meanwhile, faculty at Gyeongbuk National University in Daegu were recently asked to vote on the current model of privatization. Over eighty percent of professors voted not to go private.
 
By Jacob Lotinga, Invited professor, Dept. of English Education
#313 Faculty Column
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