By Kim Bo-eun
The education ministry said Friday it had ordered Hanzhong University and Daegu University of Foreign Studies (DUFS) to halt student recruitment for the 2018 academic year and will close the schools by the end of February next year.
The measure is due to the schools’ poor performance in restructuring conducted in 2015.
“The universities, which had received the lowest “E grade” in the evaluation, had consulting, and opportunities to improve themselves. But we concluded the two could not guarantee the quality of education as higher education institutions,” the ministry said.
This is the first shutdown order for universities made under the Moon Jae-in administration, signaling its drive to take measures against poor-performing or corrupt schools.
Hanzhong University failed to follow through with 18 requirements including recovering 38 billion won ($33.6 million) in school funds that were embezzled or used illegally. It also owes 33 billion won in overdue wages to faculty members.
With no measures to overcome the low student enrollment rate and poor financial circumstances, the amount of overdue wages of faculty continued to grow, making normal school management impossible, the ministry said.
Hanzhong University was 100 percent reliant on tuition income. This is comparable to the 54.9 percent average for other regular universities.
DUFS failed to fulfill 12 requirements including securing 3 billion won in basic assets, which is a requirement to receive approval to establish a school.
Due to its deteriorating financial situation, the school had used school funds illegally.
The ministry also ordered the dispersion of DUFS’ educational foundation, as DUFS was the only school that was managed by the foundation.
Students of the schools will have the opportunity to transfer to other nearby schools.
A total of 1,493 students are subject to transfers _ 972 undergraduate and 75 graduate students at Hanzhong and 392 at DUFS.
Hanzhong students will be able to transfer to other universities in Gangwon Province, and DUFS students to schools in Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province.
They will be able to transfer to the same or similar departments with the same grades, and where there are no similar departments, they will be able to transfer to schools in other areas.
The universities will select students based on their own evaluation criteria such as interviews and GPA. The students will not be required to take written tests and will be exempt from transfer fees.