SNU reform proposal faces backlash

The Democratic United Party (DUP)’s recent proposal for the merger of public universities has triggered a public backlash.

The DUP said during a press conference Monday that the party was considering combining state-run universities and operating them by region.

“We are considering grouping state-run universities such as Seoul National, Kyungbuk National and Jeonnam National universities into a single entity and allowing courses and student exchanges among those universities. The diploma will also be the same,” said Lee Yong-sup, head of the policy committee at the party.

“The system will be somewhat like the French system or the California state university system where Paris has universities numbered according to the district and California runs state-run universities on multiple campuses in Berkeley, Los Angeles, and Irvine.”

The party is also considering abolishing the undergraduate program at Seoul National University (SNU) and operating only a graduate school to get rid of the elite school hierarchy. This would mean the de facto abolition of the nation’s top-notch university.

The DUP said the measure was to eliminate the deeply-rooted reputation of SNU in the country.

“The whole point of the plan is to resolve the excessive competition in getting into college, private education spending, education centered in the metropolitan regions and taking the pressure off college entrance. If the regional state-run universities’ level of education is upgraded to the same level as SNU, then the problems can be solved,” Lee said.

“If the DUP becomes the ruling party in the next administration, we will get rid of the yearly competition to get into SNU and the discrimination from college rankings.”

A backlash from opponents and students, who say that the measure will not be the ultimate solution to reducing competition between schools, was not surprising. Abolishing SNU won’t mean other universities’ competitiveness will rise but will only raise the status of other private universities, they say.

“Why would they attack state-run universities when they can’t even do anything about private universities which are the main cause of the hierarchy and the education system that encourages competition?” a man who identified himself as an SNU alumni said in a Twitter posting.

“Getting rid of a school as competitive as SNU is just ridiculous. The well performing students will still line up to go to only the higher ranking universities anyway,” said another netizen.

“Besides, they are kicking away the ladder when they themselves have gone up that same path.”

Private universities must be controlled first before anything is done about public ones, others said.

Most view the proposal as a means to gain votes before the presidential election.

Following the criticism from the public, the DUP took a step back from their stance Tuesday, a day after media reports on their announcement, saying that the plan was not official and it was not appropriate to call it the “SNU abolition plan.”

“We’re currently gathering public opinion. The media has gone a bit too far. We will review the proposal and decide whether or not to make it a pledge for the presidential election,” said Lee, Tuesday, during a meeting at the National Assembly. <The Korea Times/Yun Suh-young>

news@theasian.asia