Gov't to provide financial support for part-time lecturers' salaries

Vice Education Minister Park Baeg-beom, third from right, announces the government's support plans to guarantee part-time lecturers' job security, during a press briefing at the Government Complex Sejong, Tuesday. / Yonhap

By Bahk Eun-ji

The government will provide 28.8 billion won ($24.4 million) to help universities pay part-time lecturers, as concerns grow over massive layoffs of lecturers along with the scheduled implementation of a revised law that was originally aimed at guaranteeing job security.

Universities and part-time lecturers, however, say injecting state money will not help solve the problem fundamentally.

Starting August, the revised Higher Education Act will take effect to have schools hire part-time lecturers as faculty members, guarantee their employment for at least one year, and provide them with paid vacations, severance pay and benefits.

But even before its implementation, the rule has backfired as schools began dismissing lecturers due to the increased financial burden.

“As of March, we estimate about 10,000 lectures have been dismissed at universities across the country, but it is difficult to figure out the exact number, as usually one lecturer has two to three lectures at different schools,” said Choi hwa-sik, a ministry director at the higher education policy bureau.

As a countermeasure, the government said it would offer 28.8 billion won so schools can provide lecturers with a salary during vacations. And when providing the salary support and other research funds, the ministry will penalize schools dismissing a large number of lecturers or reducing a large number of lectures.

It also plans to allocate 28 billion won to helping fired lecturers continue their research.

But lecturers and schools say the allocated budget of 28.8 billion won for salaries during vacation is too small to guarantee lecturers' jobs, as they estimate at least 200 billion won will be needed.