CHEONAN — Regional universities in South Korea are facing a survival crisis driven by a shrinking school-age population, the concentration of students at universities in the capital area, and a policy to waive tuition at flagship regional national universities. The pressure has become severe enough that regional institutions joke bitterly that they will "go under in the order the cherry blossoms bloom," from south to north. Calls are growing for these schools to move beyond recruiting international students, cutting enrollment quotas and relying on one-off funding, and instead to build educational competitiveness through specialization while reinventing themselves as innovation hubs that solve problems facing local industry and communities.
Yoon Seung-yong, who recently won a fifth term as president of Namseoul University, said in an interview with Seoul Economic Daily at the president's office on the Cheonan campus in South Chungcheong Province on the 23rd that "university education must not stay inside the lecture hall but should extend into industry and the local community through specialization." Yoon proposed that "university evaluations should weigh not only size and research output but also student growth, the quality of employment, the share of graduates who settle in the region, contributions to corporate technological innovation, and improvements in residents' lives." A graduate of Seoul National University's Korean language and literature department, Yoon came to the post from journalism, having served as a newspaper's Washington correspondent and political desk chief. Yoon also headed the Defense Media Agency and served as senior presidential secretary for public relations and spokesperson under the Roh Moo-hyun administration, and has led Namseoul University since 2018.
Yoon stressed that the government must change how it provides support so that universities can draw up medium- and long-term development strategies and carry them out consistently. While expressing agreement with the direction of policies to nurture regional universities, such as the Glocal University program and the Regional Innovation System and Education (RISE) framework, Yoon argued that the short-term project structure weighted toward selection contests needs to be fixed. "If funding swings sharply depending on whether a school is selected for a project, universities can burn through their capacity responding to grant competitions rather than pursuing long-term educational innovation," Yoon said.
Yoon also called for regulatory reform to lower the barriers between education, industry, employment and welfare policy. "Universities, local governments and companies need to identify regional talent needs together and link education, research and employment organically," Yoon said, urging that "policies fragmented across ministries and agencies be integrated."
Yoon argued that the way university funding is allocated also needs to change, proposing that part of the local education grant that supports kindergartens and elementary, middle and high schools be actively used for higher education through a social consensus. "Investment in primary and secondary education keeps rising even as the school-age population shrinks, while support for universities falls short," Yoon said. "We should stop putting off this discussion and find a balance that raises the competitiveness of higher education, vocational education and lifelong learning without harming the primary and secondary education environment." On the plan to waive tuition at flagship regional national universities starting with next year's freshmen, Yoon stressed that fairness toward private universities in the regions must also be considered. "We need to raise the educational competitiveness of all regional universities through a range of support tools, including scholarships, education vouchers and regional higher education funds," Yoon said.
Yoon also argued that policy on international students should continue to expand in numbers while advancing a step further toward qualitative growth, on the view that recruiting students from abroad will not deliver sustainable results if it merely supplements enrollment quotas and finances. "Namseoul University currently provides one-stop support covering admission, study, graduation and employment for more than 2,300 international students from 33 countries," Yoon said. "We need to work with local companies to create the conditions for them to settle here so they can become global assets for the region."
That thinking is reflected in Namseoul University's own development strategy. Yoon is designing the university's future around three pillars — industrial innovation based on artificial intelligence and mobility, lifelong education that bridges generations, and shared growth with the local community — drawing on the characteristics of the industrial belt running from Cheonan and Asan to Pyeongtaek and Yongin. At the center of the plan is a Mobility AI-Transformation (AX) Manufacturing Innovation Center being built on campus. The university plans to invest about 23 billion won ($16 million), including state funds, by 2030 to develop it as a testbed supporting prototype development and technological upgrading at local companies.
"We will connect student education and faculty research to solving companies' actual problems, so that educational and research capabilities translate into innovation on the industrial floor," Yoon said. "We will build an education system that lets students combine their majors with AI to respond to AI transformation (AX) and digital transformation (DX)."
The university is also pursuing a new education model geared to a super-aged society. Namseoul University is working to establish a University-Based Retirement Community (UBRC), the first at a South Korean university. The plan is to make it more than housing, linking lifelong learning, health and culture programs, intergenerational exchange and senior entrepreneurship. "A university should become a platform where highly experienced retirees and local residents can settle in and pursue lifelong learning, and a driver that changes the region's future together with businesses," Yoon said.