Ministry of Education, Science and Technology selects as 'Outstanding HR Fostering University Education Improvement Project’
Highest among provincial universities and procured 5th highest national treasury funding
[Aug 22, 2008]
Yeungnam University (President Tong Ki Woo) was selected for the 'Outstanding HR Fostering University Education Improvement Project' starting this year and has become the highest beneficiary of national treasury funds among provincial colleges.
On the 22nd the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (Minister Ahn Byeong-man, hereinafter 'MEST') announced their selections of universities to receive funds for the 'Outstanding HR Fostering University Education Improvement Project' (hereinafter 'Education Improvement Project). According to the results, Yeungnam University will be funded 1.236 billion won, which is the most national treasury fund among provincial universities. It is also fifth in the nation following Yonsei University (1.439 billion won), Korea University (1.375 billion won), Hanyang University (1.327 billion won) and Kyunghee Univeristy (1.285 billion won).
In order to select the universities and confirm amount of funding, MEST introduced the 'formula funding' method for the first time to improve transparency. Formula funding is a method for providing financial support according to a pre-composed formula based on an objective and quantitative index. For this project, five indexes that reflect the education condition and performances such as employment rate, student admission rate, full time faculty rate, scholarship payment rate, education expense per student, etc. The university's ranking for funding was determined in the order of highest scores. The amount of funding for each college and the number of universities selected for funding were confirmed using the resource distribution formula.
Bae Cheol-ho (47), director of the Yeungnam University planning office, stated that "This means a lot because it is the result of reflecting the Ministry of Education's policies for selecting universities for funding based on 'educational performance'." He also added, "Yeungnam University will use the national treasury support funds for scholarships, improved education and research environments, developing various employment programs and to assist students with finding employment, while strictly administering the performance index in order to maximize the achievements of the education improvement project."
The 'Education Improvement Project' is in its first year and colleges selected for funding can autonomously use the national treasury funds according to their plans in order to construct educational infrastructure, scholarship grants and to enhance their educational abilities. 151 4-year universities and 127 technical colleges applied for this program, in which 64 4-year universities and 72 technical colleges for a total of 136 schools were selected for these funds. 52 schools (25 4-year and 27 technical schools) were located in the Seoul area, while 84 (39 4-year and 45 technical schools) were located in provincial areas. Amongst them 35 school (25 4-year and 10 technical schools) were national or public schools and 84 were private (39 4-year and 45 technical schools).
