Scientific community protests ‘less budget capping’
The Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Strategy and Finance notified the “non-acceptance”
The Ministry of Economy and Finance approves the special ‘turning point’ accounting bill
The financial authorities’ reform plan, which sought to use surplus funds for elementary and secondary education to develop science and technology in line with demographic change, was eventually abandoned. The ministry responsible for the budget of the four major science and technology institutes (KAIST), including the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), was transferred to the Ministry of Education, and the budget was further reduced, failing to exceed the wall of doubt that will be torn down together with the generalist universities.
Finally, on the 13th, the Ministry of Science and ICT communicated to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance its position of ‘non-acceptance’ on the plan to transfer the budget of the four major science and technology institutes to the special account for higher education and continuing education. The Ministry of Strategy and Finance has decided to accept the positions of the Ministry of Science and ICT and the four main institutes of science and technology.
Within the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, it was reported that they tried to provide more financial support to the four major science and technology institutes, but fell in a battle for the truth and believed that too much time and effort was wasted in this process.
In response, it was decided to change the policy to focus on passing the bill to introduce special accounting for higher and continuing education support, while leaving the budget for the four major science and technology institutes unchanged.
The four major science and technology institutes are KAIST, Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST), Ulsan Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), and Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST). Unlike general universities under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Science and ICT takes over the budget and operation according to a special law.
The financial authorities continued the introduction of a special account for support to higher and further education to extend the use of education subsidies, which were limited to elementary and secondary education, to higher education against a sharp decline in the school age population.
It has found a new use in education to minimize opposition from the education community following the reform of the education subsidy system. During this process, the financial authorities proposed a plan to transfer the budget of the four main scientific and technological institutes to the special account for the support of higher and further education. With the creation of a new tool called Special Accounting for Supporting Higher and Continuing Education, we have tried to include the four major science and technology institutions in this tool to invest additional overflowing resources in elementary and secondary schools.
Within the financial authorities, it has been analyzed that such a reorganization would allow an additional budget of 10 to 20 billion won to be injected into each institute of science and technology each year.
However, the scientific community has opposed this idea. The Institute of Science and Technology said, “When it comes to special accounting, the budget planning and execution department is from the Ministry of Science and ICT to the Ministry of Education, and the budget deliberation and resolution of the Committee The standing committee of the National Assembly has changed from the committee for the transmission and communication of information on science and technology to the committee for education. The budget flowing into the country will be levelled,” he said.
In this regard, the Ministry of Strategy and Finance explained that even though it has switched to special accounting, the four major science and technology institutes are still under the supervision of the Minister of Science and Technology under special laws such as the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology Act, so they are not supervised by the Ministry of Education, but have failed to convince.
Reporter Sejong Lee Young-joon
