Declining enrolments and entrenched hierarchies will hamper the new South Korean government¡¯s plans to transform its regional institutions into world-class universities that can compete with Seoul, academics have warned.

The ¡°Ten Seoul National Universities¡± initiative was a flagship policy of Lee Jae-myung during his campaign to replace impeached president Yoon Suk Yeol, who was removed from office after a tumultuous period?in which he?declared martial law.

Since winning the election in June,?Lee has pushed on with the plan, recently nominating one of its architects, Lee Jin-sook, former president of Chungnam National University, as his minister of education.

Based on a 2021 proposal by Kyung Hee University professor Kim Jong-young, the initiative aims to pump resources into nine regional universities to elevate them to the level of Seoul National University, as a key part of a wider regional development strategy.

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Each designated university would receive??300 billion (?170 million) annually, with the goal of elevating three into the global top 100 within a decade.

But scholars have questioned both the realism and the relevance of the ¡°10 SNU¡± plan, warning that it could struggle to overcome deep-rooted structural and demographic obstacles.

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Higher education experts say the country¡¯s entrenched academic hierarchy, coupled with a?shrinking student population, makes such an overhaul unlikely to succeed without broader system change.

¡°The government¡¯s ambition,¡± said Theodore Jun?Yoo, professor of history at Yonsei University, ¡°is, in reality, neither revolutionary nor genuinely feasible within the current fabric of Korean society¡±.

While past reforms have aimed to?boost research?or expand access, few have attempted to replicate the prestige and resources of South Korea¡¯s top national university outside the capital.

But the?Seoul-centric concentration of top institutions, employers and infrastructure continues to draw the country¡¯s best students to the capital ¨C often permanently.

Professor Jun Hyun Hong of Chung Ang University?told?Times Higher Education?that?¡°actually securing a budget equivalent to Seoul National University¡¯s will likely be very challenging,¡± citing Korea¡¯s lower-than-OECD-average public spending on higher education and ongoing tuition freezes.

Moreover, Hong said investment alone would not resolve the deeper problem of competitive university admissions.

¡°Simply increasing facilities and budgets will not fundamentally improve admission bottlenecks and university rankings without reforming the admission structure itself.¡±

He added that any serious attempt to revitalise regional universities must be tied to broader economic transformation.

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¡°There must be high-quality job opportunities and industry-academia collaboration linking education and research with local industries,¡± he said. Local governments, he added, must also provide amenities attractive to skilled professionals.

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Chang H. Kim, assistant professor at Xi¡¯an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, agreed that?revitalising regional cities which were ¡°slowly collapsing in terms of population, industry, and infrastructure¡± needed to come first or else investment in universities could be wasted.?

¡°If these ecosystems are successfully revitalised, local universities will grow alongside them. This organic growth can then stimulate university-industry collaboration and R&D. Injecting massive budgets and authority into local universities in the absence of a robust regional ecosystem may end up being little more than a short-term fix,¡± he said.

Robert J.?Fouser, former associate professor of Korean language education at SNU, was more blunt in his assessment.

¡°I see no chance of that,¡± he said of the plan¡¯s potential to shift the focus away from the capital. ¡°Moving existing institutions from Seoul would have an impact, but that¡¯s not being discussed and is extremely difficult to do.¡±

He warned that?declining enrolments?will intensify the challenges facing regional campuses.

¡°Some institutions may no longer be able to fill seats, let alone attract talented staff and students,¡± he said. ¡°Declining enrolment requires a downsizing or retrenchment strategy, but that is not being discussed beyond media reports of weak private universities facing financial difficulties.¡±

Instead,?Fouser?advocated for a model focused on university autonomy and differentiation.

¡°This is perhaps the only way forward ¨C to deal with the shrinking pool of university applicants and improve the quality of education and research.¡±

He criticised the government¡¯s ¡°top-down¡± approach, arguing that meaningful reform requires institutions to set their own priorities.

¡°The government¡¯s goals come from the nexus of politicians, bureaucrats, and the media, not from the universities themselves. The top-down structure of the reforms is not conducive to developing autonomy and competitiveness.¡±

Despite scepticism, some academics welcomed the spotlight on regional institutions. Yoo Jun, vice-president at Hanyang University, described the plan as ¡°meaningful¡± and long overdue, although he acknowledged it ¡°will take more than 10 years to bear fruit¡±.

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Still, with few concrete funding mechanisms or structural changes outlined so far, he remained cautious.?¡°A groundbreaking expansion of government budgetary support for higher education is needed, but no clear measures have been announced yet.¡±

tash.mosheim@timeshigehreducation.com