[단독]Cherry blossoms fall in order of blooming? Younghonam University 78% practically insufficient

On the 4th of last month, parents are looking at the regular recruitment schedule at a 2021 college admissions strategy briefing session held by a school in Seoul. yunhap news

In this timely recruitment for college admission, eight out of ten universities in the Yeong-Honam region showed a high possibility that the competition rate could not exceed 3:1, which in fact would be underperformed. The university entrance competition rate was generally lower due to the decrease in the number of students, but the competition rate of universities far from the metropolitan area was low, and the tendency to increase as it went up to the metropolitan area was clear. In college, there are concerns that the myth that’cherry blossoms fall in order of blooming’ has become a reality.

On the 18th, the JoongAng Ilbo surveyed the results of regular recruitment for the 2021 school year of 187 universities (including campuses) across the country, and found that 18 places fell short of the one-to-one competition rate. Of these, 11 are concentrated in Yeong and Honam. In the metropolitan area (Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Incheon), there were four shortages, all of which were small theological colleges. The survey excluded 10 sites that did not disclose the final competition rate on the application agency or school website, and 5 science specialized colleges such as KAIST and POSTECH. The campus was separated, but the unified public announcement was based on the location of the university.

2021 On-time recruitment competition Graphic = Reporter Cha Junhong [email protected]

Of the 187 universities analyzed, 90 schools (48%), nearly half, did not exceed the 3:1 competitive rate. In regular recruitment, up to 3 applications can be submitted per examinee. For this reason, entrance examination experts regard a place where the competition rate is less than 3:1 as’de facto shortage’. This is because, considering that students who have been admitted twice to other universities will drop out, students must be applied with at least three times the number of admissions in order to stably fill students. Even last year, many of the universities that did not reach the 3:1 competition rate additionally recruited, but failed to fill 100%.

In particular, the Yeong-Honam region had a hard time. Of the 68 universities in the Yeong-Honam region included in the analysis, 53 (78%) showed that the competition rate was less than 3:1. In the case of Gwangju, all 10 schools to be analyzed did not reach 3:1. Even Chonnam National University, which was 3.11 to 1 last year, only achieved a 2.7 to 1 competition rate.

The average competition rate by region was less than 2 to 1 in Jeonnam (1.73) and Gwangju (1.91), and Gyeongnam (2.11), Gyeongbuk (2.12), Busan (2.43), and Jeonbuk (2.68) were all low. Following this, the average competition rate increased as it went up to the metropolitan area such as Gangwon (3.20), Chungnam (3.42), Gyeonggi (4.87), and Seoul (5.04).

Various incentives issued by local universities also did not produce a great effect. A private university in Gwangju posted an advertisement saying, “Let’s go to ○○ and get an iPhone!” They offered to give iPhones to all the first successful candidates and AirPods to those who passed the recruitment, but the university fell short of the 0.77:1 competition rate for regular recruitment.

A university in Gwangju announced that it would give the enrollee an’iPhone’ after being admitted for the first time. Homepage capture

Not only here, but also universities have provided benefits such as ‘1.5 million won scholarship for regular successful applicants’ and ‘100% free tuition for the first semester of all successful applicants’, but most of them failed to increase applicants. A university in Busan also started recruiting students, saying, “Even those who did not take the college entrance exam (SAT) can apply.” A university official in the Gyeongnam region said, “I do not expect that the competition rate will suddenly increase with an iPhone or a few scholarships, but I have no choice but to bleed because I try to catch even a few people.”

Undergraduate universities see it as difficult to fill in students even in recruitment in the future. An official from a university in Jeonbuk said, “There are no students, will there be any measures for recruitment?” said, “There are many students who would rather retry and go to Seoul as the competition rate for college admission continues to drop.

Experts demand special measures, saying there is a high possibility that the’college collapse’ will accelerate due to the rapid decline in the school-age population. Bae Sang-hoon, a professor of education at Sungkyunkwan University, said, “The decline in students is so fast that we can’t find any countermeasures that can be referred to abroad. If the university collapses, the area soon collapses, so we need to take emergency measures.”

A view of Dongbu Industrial University, which was closed due to financial difficulties in August last year. Central photo

Professor Bae said, “Now the era of running colleges only for high school students is over, and we need to expand our target audience to office workers and foreigners,” he said.

Some argue that to save local universities, universities in the metropolitan area must also share the pain. Park Nam-ki, a professor of education at Gwangju National University of Education, said, “If a university in the Seoul area absorbs students as it is now, the province has no choice but to let go of it.” Regarding the point of “reverse discrimination” in the metropolitan area, he said, “Instead of reducing the number of quotas, we should allow tuition increases to increase the quality of education, and universities in the metropolitan area should grow into research-oriented universities.”

Reporters Nam Yoon-seo and Nam Gung-min [email protected]