ed Politics in universities

Education Minister Lee Ju-ho's plan to phase out the election of presidents of state-run universities is an attempt to push the clock back to the authoritarian era. Although demerits outweigh merits in the direct voting system, professors should have the right to pick their leaders.

It is true that a serious hangover of the election lingers on the campus. Candidates committed themselves to pledges which ultimately erode competitiveness. Factionalism haunts the campus.

Oh Yeon-cheon became the president of Seoul National University last year on promises of hiking wages by 30 million won during his tenure. A provincial state-run university president vowed to slash the lecture hours taught per professor to seven and half hours from nine hours a week.

The government can supervise the universities through its budget and audit tools. Its heavy-handed interventions will deprive the universities of autonomous functions.

It is unwise for the government to blame the direct election system on their low global competitiveness. The direct voting system, which was introduced under the democratization wave in the 1980s, is a symbol of Korea's mature democracy.

Korea ranks 27th in the university global competitiveness out of the 57 countries the Swiss-based IMD surveyed in 2009. What Lee fails to grasp is that it is not the direct election system, but the government's high-handed intervention, that has made the universities uncompetitive globally.

Now is the time for the government to give more autonomy to universities.