Plan for literary translation graduate school delayed over regional development policy
Literature Translation Institute of Korea President Chon Soo-young speaks during a press briefing for the launch of a committee promoting the establishment of its graduate school of translation at Fraser Place Namdaemun Seoul, April 28. Newsis
LTI Korea weighs interim master's program with provincial university partner
A plan by the Literature Translation Institute of Korea (LTI Korea) to establish an independent graduate school dedicated to Korean literary translation in Seoul has been delayed as it went against the government's initiative for "balanced regional development." The institution is now reviewing an interim master's program with a national university outside Seoul while continuing to pursue the longer-term goal of a standalone facility.
The state-run institute under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has long operated a translation academy that has nurtured translators who bring Korean literature to wider international audiences. Its key limitation, however, has been that the program falls outside the official degree education system. To address that, the institute planned to open an independent graduate school in Seoul in September 2027.
Those plans have since been revised, according to government officials and other sources, and it is now in talks with regional universities to launch a master's degree program as an interim step instead.
“As a transitional measure, we have revised our plans and are now seeking to start operating this master’s program in collaboration with a regional national university in September next year,” an LTI Korea official told The Korea Times. “As for establishing an independent school, we have not abandoned the plan despite the current circumstances. We intend to continue pursuing it after putting better conditions in place for what’s required for establishment.”
No specific partner school has been determined yet, she added.
The original plan called for remodeling LTI Korea’s headquarters in southern Seoul to serve as the school’s educational facility. It was revised after two months of intensifying discussions among representatives of LTI Korea and the culture and education ministries, she said.
The change came amid the Lee Jae Myung administration’s emphasis on balanced regional development, under which the capital region is seen as already concentrating too much of Korea’s population and resources. The Ministry of Education’s university establishment and restructuring review committee recently expressed the view that the new graduate school should not be established in Seoul.
“My understanding is that members of the committee expressed the view that, given the current strong emphasis on balanced regional development, it would be more desirable to collaborate with institutions in less central regions for the program rather than establish it in Seoul,” an education ministry official said.
LTI Korea began forming a committee in April to advance the translation school plan under the revised Literature Promotion Act, which came into force last year. The envisioned school would have expanded its existing Translation Academy into an accredited master’s degree program dedicated to translating Korean literature.
Unlike other graduate schools of translation and interpretation, the proposed institution would focus specifically on literary translation. The initial plan called for an annual intake of 60 students, including 45 international students.
The project has been viewed as part of a broader effort to cultivate professional translators as Korean literature gains a wider international readership, particularly following novelist Han Kang’s 2024 Nobel Prize in literature.
Many experts in the industry see Seoul as the preferred location for the proposed graduate school, citing concerns that a regional location could make it harder to recruit both students and leading instructors from overseas.
“If the school is located outside Seoul, there would be limits in attracting talented foreign students,” one expert said. “There would also be constraints in inviting teachers, who would have to travel to a regional campus.”
Kwak Hyo-hwan, a former LTI Korea president who led efforts to establish the school, expressed disappointment over the revised plan.
“It is regrettable. If the government’s regional relocation policy takes priority over everything else, there is little more to say except that it is regrettable,” he said.