The Ministry of Education is pushing to introduce a "dual appointment" system that would allow professors to be simultaneously employed by both corporations and universities. The initiative aims to attract top industry talent, including artificial intelligence (AI) experts, to universities to strengthen education and research competitiveness.
The ministry said Monday it would discuss the deregulation measures, including the dual appointment plan, at the 25th University Regulatory Rationalization Committee meeting. Under the current system, university faculty members are not permitted to hold simultaneous positions at companies and universities, limiting institutions' ability to recruit corporate and research institute experts as full-time professors.
To address this, the ministry plans to amend the Educational Civil Servants Act and the Private School Act to establish a legal basis for dual appointments. The change is expected to open a pathway for recruiting AI specialists and prominent overseas scholars currently working at corporations or government-funded research institutes as full-time university faculty.
The committee meeting will also discuss launching a standing system for regulatory improvement, focusing on areas where universities have most frequently called for reform — including academic affairs, industry-academia cooperation, and private university regulations. Expanding the scope of leasable campus land and other basic educational properties, reducing state property usage fees to promote industry-academia-research collaboration, and simplifying hiring procedures for adjunct faculty are also on the agenda.
The ministry plans to review measures to simplify evaluation procedures and expand budget execution autonomy for the Brain Korea (BK) 21 program, as well as graduate school deregulation measures, for incorporation into institutional reforms in the second half of the year.
"As the educational environment is rapidly changing due to a declining school-age population and the AI transition, we will continue to pursue regulatory rationalization so that universities can innovate autonomously," Vice Minister of Education Choi Eun-ok said.