(1 Oct 2026) South Korea has picked the first universities to benefit from President Lee Jae Myung’s flagship pledge to build “10 Seoul National Universities” outside the capital – but in a considerably scaled-down form that has drawn sharp criticism from the six flagship universities left out.
On 1 September, the Ministry of Education named Pusan National University, Chonnam National University and Chungnam National University as the first recipients of intensive government funding meant to raise regional national universities to Seoul National University’s level.
Each will receive up to KRW100 billion (US$72 million) a year – about KRW70 billion in the first year – through 2030.
Lee’s original campaign pledge, made during the 2025 presidential race and written into his administration’s national policy agenda that August, was far broader.
All nine of Korea’s regional flagship national universities were to be developed into SNU-calibre research universities, backed by more than 800 billion won a year – roughly 4 trillion won ($2.9 billion) over five years.
Read more here.
