By Yun Suh-young
The state auditor plans to begin a full-scale inspection of spending at universities across Korea in August to uncover any irregularities in the use of tuition fees and school funds.
The Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) said Sunday that it will conduct a nationwide inspection on some 30 universities starting Aug. 8, together with the education ministry.
The audit is in line with the government’s plan to improve transparency in the management of school funds at both state-run and private colleges, while pressuring them to cut tuition.
Schools that are scheduled to be audited include prominent private universities such as Yonsei, Korea, Sogang, Hanyang and Sungkyunkwan in Seoul.
Over 20 universities are four-year universities and the remaining are two-year colleges. State-run universities were exempted.
“Those working at school administration and budget planning offices have given up their holidays and began preparing for the upcoming BAI inspection,” an official from Korea University said. An official from Yonsei University also said they have created a task force for the job.
Other universities said that they will faithfully submit to the inspection, but expressed concerns about possible government intervention in school affairs.
“These days, the most crucial information regarding school affairs is already made public so there is not much to disclose. However, the inspection itself is burdensome,” said an official from a private university on condition of anonymity.
The state audit is looking into the use of tuition and school funds to draw up a list of poorly-managed universities. Last month, the education ministry announced poorly-managed colleges will face diverse administrative measures, including a closure. School managers engaged in corruption cases will be told to quit.
The colleges to be inspected increased tuitions significantly this year and have “greatly” accumulated school funds, a BAI spokesman said.
“I think public schools have been exempt from the inspection because they have lower tuition rates and because they are subject to an annual parliamentary inspection,” said an official from a public school.
The BAI and the education ministry jointly conducted a preliminary inspection from July 7 to 27 on the targeted universities in preparation for the full-scale audit, the ministry said.