South Korea combats declining enrolment with “glocal” universities

News

South Korea’s Ministry of Education has unveiled a new plan to strengthen its regional universities by creating “glocal” universities: universities that develop programs with global companies that are linked to local economic priorities. University World News reports that the country’s universities are beginning to face an upcoming demographic cliff, with regional universities already faring poorly as students are drawn to major city centres. In response to this, the ministry will be allocating over half of its university grant budget to local governments, which will be expected to help develop individual regional institutions to meet local needs, as well as providing further funding to support industry partnerships. UWN states that there are some concerns about whether local governments have the capacity or experience necessary to appropriately to allocate the funds.

University World News