At the National Assembly Education Committee audit held at Pusan National University on the 21st, it was pointed out that the government should transparently reveal the process of selecting universities to support the so-called 'Create 10 Seoul National Universities' package, which is a government task.
People Power Party lawmaker Seo Beom-soo said of the results of the government's recent announcement of the government's selection of universities for national university package support, "There are some unclear parts of the selection process," and added, "However, the Ministry of Education has not yet notified the universities that were eliminated of the specific reasons."
Previously, last September, the Ministry of Education selected three universities, including Pusan National University, Chonnam National University, and Chungnam National University, as the universities to support Seoul National University's Make 10 Package, and plans to invest a budget of about 70 billion won per university annually by 2030.
Regarding this, Representative Seo said, "In the glocal university performance evaluation conducted two months ago (selection of package support universities), Chonnam National University and Chungnam National University received lower grades than Kyungpook National University (which was eliminated)," and added, "I am curious about what criteria (package support universities) were selected by."
He continued, “However, the scores and reasons for rejection for each university are still not disclosed,” and argued that the Ministry of Education should take action so that Kyungpook National University and others that plan to reapply in the future can know specific supplementary matters.
To this, an official from the Ministry of Education responded, “We will explain (the reasons to the universities that were eliminated).”
Rep. Jeong Seong-guk of the same party said, "The project to create 10 Seoul National Universities is meaningful, but no university should be left out because of this," and emphasized that follow-up measures should be taken at the government level for key national universities that were eliminated.
In response to a question related to this, Kyungpook National University President Heo Young-woo replied, "I understand that this project is being carried out with the purpose of creating industry and economy in the region centered on the university in terms of balanced national development," and added, "I hope that the six (base national) universities that were not selected can also join the team as soon as possible."
Meanwhile, during the National Assembly inspection on this day, Kyungpook National University was pointed out for problems such as the establishment of a joint semiconductor research center that was not carried out on time even though it secured a huge project budget.
The construction of the research institute has been promoted by the government since 2023 to foster local national universities into semiconductor talent training bases.
According to the original plan, Kyungpook National University should invest a budget of 25.6 billion won and complete the project within this year.
However, the current process is in the final stage of design, and construction of the research center is expected to begin only in March of next year.
Rep. Lee In-seon of the People Power Party said, “The semiconductor industry is changing day by day, and golden time is important,” and ordered, “If human resources training, etc. does not go as planned, it is the students who ultimately suffer. The authorities must comprehensively inspect universities’ poor business management, etc.”
