Recently, except for Seoul National University, the discussion about merging the nine local major national universities in Korea (Kangwon Univ., Kyungpook Univ., Gyeongsang Univ., Busan Univ., Chonnam Univ., Chonbuk Univ., Jeju Univ., Chungnam Univ., Chungbuk Univ.) into one national university, called ‘Hankuk University’, has been ongoing. On July 25th, a brief session on the admission requirements of the nine local major universities was held in Busan University, and it was interpreted as a first step in the discussion about Hankuk University consolidation. Now, the council of directors for each university’s admission department is discussing it in detail.



  According to the council, they put top priority on unifying the admissions process of the nine national universities. By making an ‘Integrated Application System’ where students can apply with one application form, they set their sights on recruiting students jointly. Also, they mapped out the sharing of credits, a better curriculum, professors, students and facilities among the universities. Moving around the nine campuses, students can find and take classes they want. In addition, they plan that students will be granted a degree from the campus of their choice. By doing so, students can have various choices in their academic life.
  Several advantages would be expected in consolidating the local major national universities. First, the competitive edge of each local major university would increase. Each college will be able to share many resources which have relative predominance like competent professors or the excellent facilities. Also, specialized departments in each college can get more investment, and as a result, each local major university can have higher competitiveness. Second, the excessive ranking among the universities would be alleviated. Currently, the ranking system where only some elite colleges in Seoul are able to survive can be relieved by improving the local universities’ competitiveness.
  However, there are some criticisms about this consolidation concept. The first argument is that it could justify the restructuring of some departments in several universities. It means that if they are consolidated, some departments in a college that have lower competitiveness might be integrated into another college’s that has higher competitiveness, or it might just   disappear in the worst case. The second issue is that small-to-medium size national universities were excluded from the discussion of the Hankuk University consolidation. Originally, the government declared that they would enhance the publicity of education by supporting all national universities, but excluding small-to-medium size national colleges from the consolidation goes against equity. The last problem is that some students criticized that this consolidation idea proceeded without any opinions taken from national college students.
  Recently, the Chungbuk Times gave a survey related to the Hankuk University consolidation discussion to 201 CBNU students. 53% of the respondents agreed with consolidation and 47% disagreed. Students in favor of consolidation emphasized ‘Improvement in the competitive edge of local national universities’, ‘Alleviating ranks among universities’, or ‘Sharing advantages between local national universities’ as their reasons. In contrast, students on the opposite side disagreed by stressing ‘The decay of each college’s identity’ or ‘Hard to alleviate the ranking among colleges’. On the other hand, half of students answered that ‘Sharing each local national university’s excellent curriculum, professors, research manpower, facilities’ would be the biggest advantage. However, 63% of students responded that ‘Leveling down higher rated university’s competitiveness’ would be a risk.
  Meanwhile, Chungnam National University student Park Ji-hyun (’14, Dept. of Commerce and Trade) disagreed with consolidation. He said his college’s original history and tradition would disappear because of consolidation. There have been various ideas about consolidation, but many students, regardless of whether they agree or not, wished that this consolidation would be an opportunity for local national colleges to gain higher competitiveness. The recent discussion of the Hankuk University consolidation is ongoing and it is just in the beginning stage. As combining the nine national universities is enough to get many students’ attention, it is expected that this consolidation work will proceed with minimal trial and error and better communication with students.

By Min Byung-woo
bw38@cbnu.ac.kr