By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter
Korea University is considering dropping its bid to run a U.S.-style law school to protest what it calls an ``unacceptable'' student quota.
However, it fell short of reaching a conclusion at an emergency meeting of more than 30 professors from the College of Law at the school, Wednesday.
``Professors have in principle agreed to take countermeasures, including abandoning its bid to open a law school,'' said Ha Kyung-ho, the dean of the College of Law, emerging from the meeting that lasted more than two hours. ``But taking into account the severity of the matter, we will make a final decision after consulting with our students and alumni.''
In early February, the Education Ministry announced 25 successful candidates for the first ever law schools _ 15 in the Seoul area and 10 in the provinces. Korea University was granted a student quota of 120.
Noting that the school's professors have expressed strong complaints over the selection result, Ha said ``under the current system, it is extremely hard to nurture competent lawyers and legal experts.''
``We are ahead of other successful candidates in the number of professors and our previous performance including the number of students passing the Korean bar exam. But the government allocated us the same student quota as some `inferior' universities,'' the dean said.
Yonsei and Sungkyunkwan universities received the same student quota as Korea University. ``We think there will be financial difficulties in running the school with only 120 students,'' he added.
The professor called on the government to raise not only the total student numbers, but also the student quota for each school.
``The theory of free competition should be introduced to the already `troubled' law school system to meet its initial objectives,'' he said.
Other selected schools are taking a wait-and-see approach.
Chang Jae-ok, dean of the College of Law at Chung-Ang University in Seoul, said, ``We agree that current student quotas allocated are too small. But we don't have a plan to give up the license we secured through costly and time-consuming efforts.''
Jang Duk-jo, dean of College of Law at Sogang University, also said ``We are not considering returning the license on our own. But it's possible that schools in Seoul could return their licenses together.''
Universities that failed to win a license are moving to file lawsuits to nullify the government's decision.