Ministry Names 43 Colleges as Poorly Managed

As reported in The Joongang Daily, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology has singled out 43 of the nation's colleges as "poorly managed." Out of the 200 four-year colleges and 146 junior colleges nationwide, 43 schools were deemed to be poorly managed and will no longer be eligible for government support. Furthermore, entering freshmen at 17 of the 43 schools will face restrictions on receiving government student loans starting next academic year.
According to the ministry, the criteria used to determine whether a school was poorly managed focused on the employment rate of graduates and student retention rate.
Four of the 43 schools deemed poorly managed had enrollments over 10,000, six had between 5,000 and 10,000 students, and 33 had enrollments below 5,000.
Seven of the 43 appeared on the list for the second year in a row: Luther University, Dong-U College, Byuksung College, Busan Arts College, Yeongnam Foreign Language College, Kundong University and Holy People University.
Eleven of the 43 poorly managed schools are in the Seoul metropolitan area while 32 are located elsewhere.
The 43 schools that make up the bottom 15 percent of colleges nationwide will face a number of disadvantages, including being the priority for structural reform that is being pushed by the ministry.
Hong Seung-yong, chair of the ministry’s panel on college restructuring, said, “As the evaluation of colleges is every year, the listed schools can make efforts this year to regain eligibility for government funding.”
Last year, these 43 colleges received a total of 130 billion won in financial support from the government.