The institutional environment that creates a world-class university comes first—not just “10 Seoul National Universities”

The new government’s pledge to “create 10 Seoul National Universities” is framed as a way to promote balanced regional development and ease the hierarchy among universities. But this policy stems from a misunderstanding of both the nature of higher education and the changing global environment. Korea’s university policy must now move beyond the simple logic of balancing the Seoul metropolitan area and non-metropolitan regions, and answer the more fundamental question: how can we foster truly world-class, creative universities? And the answer lies not in government budgets, but in institutional freedom and flexibility.

◆ “10 Seoul National Universities” Is Korean-Style Standardization; What We Need Is One More MIT

The government-led plan to create 10 flagship national universities on par with Seoul National University is a uniform strategy of leveling downward that misunderstands the essence of education. Higher education around the world has developed not through standardization, but through diversity and specialization. MIT in the United States, Cambridge in the United Kingdom, and ETH Zurich in Switzerland are not “prestigious national universities” directly built by governments, but institutions that naturally attained world-leading status through autonomy and choice.

Rather than mass-producing 10 versions of Seoul National University, the real strategy of an advanced education nation is to create an institutional environment in which even a single university can emerge with MIT-level autonomy and creativity.

◆ In the AI Era, Universities Must Be Laboratories of Creativity and Convergence

Universities are no longer institutions that simply deliver information. In a world where ChatGPT and other generative AI systems produce information in overwhelming abundance, what matters is no longer “what you know,” but “how you think” and “how you define and solve problems.” To meet this challenge, there is an urgent need for creative, convergent education that integrates STEM and the liberal arts.

But Korean universities today are trapped within the Ministry of Education’s uniform evaluation indicators and fiscal project frameworks. Adventurous curriculum reform, experimental faculty appointments, and the design of industry-academia integrated campuses are impossible under centralized regulation. Creativity does not come from directives. Only when universities can design themselves can they truly cultivate real talent.

◆ Without University Autonomy, There Can Be Neither Competition nor Innovation

True competitiveness comes from autonomy. Without autonomy in admissions, tuition, and enrollment quotas, no amount of budget support will lead to innovation. If the government continues, as it does now, to distribute funding, impose evaluation metrics, and control university education as though universities were public agencies, then universities will no longer be institutions of thought, but passive vendors of knowledge.

◆ How Long Will We Remain Trapped in Domestic Rankings?

The existing hierarchy of Seoul National University, Korea University and Yonsei University, and flagship regional national universities is nothing more than competition within a domestic market. What we need now is to pursue global universities directly connected to the global academic ecosystem. To do that, universities urgently need the freedom and flexibility to build international research networks on their own, attract global students, and collaborate with international industries.

◆ The Starting Point Is to Return Freedom to Universities

In an AI, digital, hyper-connected society, what we need is not standardized universities, but “free universities” that constantly dismantle, reconstruct, and recreate themselves. World-class universities are not built by governments; they are born when governments refrain from interfering. The answer is not a government roadmap, but an institutional environment that removes regulations and allows autonomous competition.

Gwang yong Go, Policy Director, Center for Free Enterprise (CFE)

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Original title: "서울대 10개" 아닌 "세계 최고 대학" 탄생의 제도적 환경이 먼저!

Author: Gwang yong Go

Date: 2025-07-10

Source: https://www.cfe.org/bbs/bbsDetail.php?cid=press&idx=27879