Lecturer fights exploitation
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Academic seeks to trigger public debate over part-time lecturers
By Kim Se-jeon
Kim Min-sup
Kim Min-sup, 33, is the father of a toddler with a heart problem.
Until the end of November last year, he was a lecturer paid by the hour at a university in Wonju, Gangwon Province, while his wife stayed home to take care of their son.
For three years, he taught Korean literature at the school, which he preferred not to name. He earned about 10 million won per year there.
But he could not secure nine teaching hours per week, the number necessary to qualify him and his family to receive medical insurance.
To supplement his income, he also worked at least 60 hours per week at a branch of McDonalds, the minimum hours required to qualify him and his family to receive medical insurance. There, he earned an additional 5 million won every year.
Like him, almost 70,000 university lecturers in Korea work part-time. They renew their contracts every semester but rarely get a chance to work full-time, mainly because schools want to save costs.
As a junior lecturer, Kim had to deal with other tasks assigned by the school and full-time colleagues, in addition to his own lectures.
“My efforts were not recognized or appreciated, let alone compensated,” Kim said in an interview.
He began posting writing online about the poor working conditions endured by part-time lecturers, after he opened a Facebook page in 2014. Last November, he published a book titled “I’m a part-time lecturer at a provincial university.”
The miserable working conditions of part-time lecturers attracted public attention following the suicide of one in 2010. In his suicide note, the man lamented the university system in which the opportunity to teach came at the price of poor working conditions and exploitation by the schools and senior colleagues.
Protective measures backfire
In 2011, a bill was passed but the consequent law, established to improve job security for lecturers, was not immediately implemented. Under this, universities are to be required to renew lecturers’ contracts every year instead of every semester, recognize them as faculty members and provide them with full social insurance.
But the measure backfired — schools, in anticipation of the law becoming effective, began terminating the contracts of part-time lecturers, saying they couldn’t afford to comply with the new rules. Lecturers themselves also worried that the bill would deprive them of job opportunities.
So implementation of the law was delayed three times, with the third postponement of another two years decided at the end of last year.
Kim said the law should be implemented because it will be the first step for non-regular workers at universities — meaning part-time lecturers.
He urged universities to be more responsible and for lecturers to speak out. “Without requests from lecturers, the universities won’t act to improve their wellbeing,” he said. “Both the schools and the lecturers have to act, instead of just passing the buck to politicians.”
Kim quit working at McDonald’s in November and the university the following month in order to become a full-time writer.
Although he didn’t plan to quit his lecturing job, he did so because he was disappointed in his colleagues who rebuked him for writing his book.
“I got a call from my colleagues, and I went to meet them hoping for solidarity,” he said. “Instead, they criticized me harshly for revealing their lives to the public. That hurt.”
Now, he writes for the web portal Daum and has a couple of other writing projects lined up.
“My goal is to make $30,000 per year from writing,” he said. “I have given myself two years to do this. If I can’t, I will go back to McDonald’s. I am thankful to my wife who respects my decision.”
He said he would not go back to the university.
Kim writes about problems in Korea’s higher education system. He hopes that his writing will trigger meaningful discussion.
“I cannot change things on my own, but I hope that what I am doing will start a discussion that will eventually bring about changes.”
He doesn’t want his son to be a lecturer when he grows up. “If he chooses to be so, I would support him, but I would be very sad.”