ID :
199781
Mon, 08/08/2011 - 12:11
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http://m.oananews.org//node/199781
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Eliminate tuition bubble through university audits
(Yonhap Editorial)
SEOUL, Aug. 8 (Yonhap) -- The Board of Audit and Inspection started a three-week audit of 66 colleges and universities across the nation Monday. The intensive audit, which follows a preliminary one last month, is designed to delve into the financial management of major universities and how they charge tuition.
The audit results will be used as references needed to lower tuitions, which has been a matter of keen interest nationwide. The BAI did not disclose the list of schools being audited but all major universities, including Seoul National, Korea, Yonsei and Sogang, are reportedly included.
The audit should closely scrutinize the financial status of universities to root out insolvent and near insolvent institutions.
The lowering of university tuitions cannot be solved with just the government's financial assistance. The government's use of state budget to lower tuitions would just lengthen the feeble life of insolvent universities with taxpayers' money.
We hope the audit serves as an opportunity to push universities to take tough self-support measures.
The state auditor said it found various misallocations in schools' accounting to raise tuitions.
One university, for instance, had collected 19.2 billion won (US$17.8 million) more in tuition than needed over the past five years by allocating school expenditures to buy state-held land, which cannot be sold to a university legally. Other universities used tuition to cover expenses for faculty members and school employees' overseas trips or to cover the university hospital's expenditures, which the medical facility should cover itself.
All these miscalculations and misappropriations prove there was room to cut tuitions, if not by half as demanded by opposition political parties as well as students.
The BAI should reveal how universities calculate their tuitions and how much they can lower them. The incompetent universities that can stay alive only through government subsidies and high tuitions should be ferreted out this time.
Following its preliminary audit, the state auditor notified a private university in Seoul that it could have slashed this year's tuition of 8.81 million won by 2.86 million won -- almost one-third -- if it had withheld all unnecessary spending and raised non-tuition revenues.
This university voiced its objection to some of the recommendations, including one that it sell off some of its properties to expand its scholarship program.
The universities should sincerely accept the outcome of the audit and make strict efforts to support themselves by restructuring and realizing sound financial status.
We hope the audit will be a chance to pop the bubble of these unreasonably high tuitions. The BAI should realize that the entire nation is watching closely to see the results of the audit.
SEOUL, Aug. 8 (Yonhap) -- The Board of Audit and Inspection started a three-week audit of 66 colleges and universities across the nation Monday. The intensive audit, which follows a preliminary one last month, is designed to delve into the financial management of major universities and how they charge tuition.
The audit results will be used as references needed to lower tuitions, which has been a matter of keen interest nationwide. The BAI did not disclose the list of schools being audited but all major universities, including Seoul National, Korea, Yonsei and Sogang, are reportedly included.
The audit should closely scrutinize the financial status of universities to root out insolvent and near insolvent institutions.
The lowering of university tuitions cannot be solved with just the government's financial assistance. The government's use of state budget to lower tuitions would just lengthen the feeble life of insolvent universities with taxpayers' money.
We hope the audit serves as an opportunity to push universities to take tough self-support measures.
The state auditor said it found various misallocations in schools' accounting to raise tuitions.
One university, for instance, had collected 19.2 billion won (US$17.8 million) more in tuition than needed over the past five years by allocating school expenditures to buy state-held land, which cannot be sold to a university legally. Other universities used tuition to cover expenses for faculty members and school employees' overseas trips or to cover the university hospital's expenditures, which the medical facility should cover itself.
All these miscalculations and misappropriations prove there was room to cut tuitions, if not by half as demanded by opposition political parties as well as students.
The BAI should reveal how universities calculate their tuitions and how much they can lower them. The incompetent universities that can stay alive only through government subsidies and high tuitions should be ferreted out this time.
Following its preliminary audit, the state auditor notified a private university in Seoul that it could have slashed this year's tuition of 8.81 million won by 2.86 million won -- almost one-third -- if it had withheld all unnecessary spending and raised non-tuition revenues.
This university voiced its objection to some of the recommendations, including one that it sell off some of its properties to expand its scholarship program.
The universities should sincerely accept the outcome of the audit and make strict efforts to support themselves by restructuring and realizing sound financial status.
We hope the audit will be a chance to pop the bubble of these unreasonably high tuitions. The BAI should realize that the entire nation is watching closely to see the results of the audit.
