사립대학 재정 감독 정책의 개선과제

Abstract

The laws regarding recent issues of founding and operating private universities in Korea have been maintained for almost 20 years since its first enactment in 1961 by the 5.16 Military Revolution Government who were after achieving the goals of regulating private schools. Following the enactment of these laws, The Fifth Republic’s military junta revised the private school laws in 1981 calling them “policies to secure a political society.” They took away University Foundation's financial rights. In the past, despite the existence of these strict national regulations, all of the private universities in Korea, once they have been founded, could be sustained by students’ tuition because the demand for college education exceeded the supply at that time. However, with birth rate plunging since 1980s, the financial situation of low rank private universities started to exacerbate since 2000. The situation is likely to worsen-after 2020 approximately more than 20% of private universities are expected to enter the condition of bankruptcy. The restructuring at private universities, like the ones at private enterprises, has to happen with a premise of decreased amount of liberal property and accounting size. Therefore, at this point, the amendment of financial management and accounting operation systems would be crucial. Consequently, the nation’s intervention should only be placed on areas such as the external leakage of properties and the use of budget with non-educational purposes. Furthermore, they should consider loosening or abolishing other legal regulations that thwart free rights to manage endowment and the flexibility of financial management at private universities.