Professors oppose reform of university president elections

Nearly 9,000 professors from state-funded universities cast a no-confidence vote against South Korea’s Education Minister Lee Ju-Ho last week, in a protest against attempts to force universities to reform how their leaders are selected – or face the risk of cuts to government subsidies.

The non-binding vote by the Korea Federation of National University Professor Associations, which represents nearly three quarters of public university academics, was a reaction to government pressure on universities to abolish the election of university presidents by faculty vote.

The government wants a ‘merit-based’ system including selection based on a professor’s seniority and research publication record.

According to the federation, some 93% of 9,473 professors at public universities cast a no-confidence vote. Although the vote has no official clout, it is a strong indication of broad opposition to the government’s policy.

“The result of the vote shows that a majority of public university professors oppose the government’s public university reform plan and proves that the plan was one-sided and forced,” the federation said in a statement released on 28 March.

Lee Byung-woon, a professor at Pusan National University, said at a federation news conference that the education ministry was attempting to gain greater control of public universities by becoming more involved in university leadership elections.

Replacing the current system where university professors elect the institution’s head by direct vote “will hinder the autonomy of the universities”, Lee said.

Other members of the federation said Korean universities did not have a system in place to evaluate professors on the basis of their research publications and teaching skills, and that the direct election of university presidents by faculty was guaranteed by existing laws.

Federation members believe the focus on research publications as a qualification for university leadership would also lead to a reduction in teaching hours in favour of research, undermining the quality of degrees.

They pointed out that ‘merit’ appeared to be based on the number of papers published rather than their quality. “It will eventually undermine the quality of studies,” said Lee Jeong, a professor at Gyeongsang National University.

Professors also fear the government’s reform could widen the salary differential between professors within the same university.

But the government has said elections for university heads are frequently “marred by irregularities”, with candidates making populist pledges that strain university finances, which in turn leads to increases in university fees to cover the additional outlay. The government has also alleged there is corruption and ‘vote-buying’ during elections for university presidents.

The ministry believes public universities will eventually cooperate with the reform plan, which it says is designed to improve Korea’s higher education competitiveness, and enable universities to cope with a declining birth rate in the country.

As evidence, the ministry has pointed out that it had signed memoranda of understanding with 11 national universities by the end of last week to implement the reform.