Notice
In the domestic university (and hospital) society, the middle brand tier is disintegrating, and the polarization of university brands is accelerating. In particular, the number of top-tier brand universities is decreasing, while the number of lower-tier brand universities is increasing rapidly. A "Perfect Storm," defined as a complex crisis, is battering domestic universities. Three malicious typhoons have combined to threaten universities and hospitals beyond their capacity to cope.
The demand gap in the university admission market (divided between regional and metropolitan universities) and nationwide patient demand, the sharp decline in the school-age population to 280,000 by 2040 (half of the current quota), the worsening financial difficulties due to tuition freezes since 2009, and the structural and institutional problems of Korean healthcare deepened by recurring medical-government conflicts—all these factors are rapidly pushing the "middle-tier" universities (and hospitals), which serve as the backbone of Korea's higher education and healthcare, into the lower tier.
The collapse of the middle university tier makes it difficult to cultivate ordinary, healthy young talent. This will also deepen the polarization of income and employment in Korean society. Furthermore, it is evident that this will be a major obstacle for domestic universities in leading their local communities through healthy competition and developing into world-class institutions.
The polarization of university brands can confuse students in the university selection process—the first step in forming their educational aspirations for higher education—and impose significant constraints on talent selection by companies, another consumer of higher education. Ultimately, starting from higher education, we fall into a vicious cycle of polarization extending to the national economy, and finding a way out will become increasingly difficult.
Amid repeated conflicts between the medical community and the government, patient and public trust in large university hospitals has hit rock bottom. In many surveys, the majority of the public responded that neither the government nor the medical community puts patients first. Regional and essential medical services, which have been the responsibility of university hospitals, have deteriorated, placing regional healthcare at risk of collapse. Patients nationwide are concentrating on university hospitals in Seoul. Creative private participation and monitoring are urgently needed to solve the polarization problem of concentration in metropolitan large university hospitals and the medical vacuum in other regions.
Efforts to optimize domestic university evaluation models have been ongoing. While the Ministry of Education's evaluations related to financial support and structural reform, as well as university evaluations by a media outlet, continue, the establishment of a virtuous cycle system through real-time evaluation platforms, transparent evaluation methods, and communication/feedback still seems far off.
Domestic hospital evaluation is solely conducted by the Ministry of Health and Welfare (HIRA), and there is no private (patient-led) hospital evaluation. To solve the various problems of the medical system, efforts to re-examine and improve service levels from a patient-centered perspective are urgent. Past medical-government conflicts have clearly shown that policies excluding patient voices have limitations. Therefore, medical reform requires a paradigm shift that evaluates medical services from the perspective of patients and the public, rather than providers (government/medical community), and reflects this in policy.
Institute of University Evaluation Inc. will implement all processes, from private-led big data evaluation models to AI consulting solutions, on a real-time digital platform, playing a leading social role in building a new virtuous cycle system for universities, corporations, and university hospitals.
Domestic and international interest in the World University Rankings, published annually by UK-based QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) and THE (Times Higher Education), is growing. However, their evaluation models cannot be said to be optimal or the best. They are pointed out for assigning excessive weight to survey reputation and research performance, and for inflating the ratings of universities in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Australia, which have adopted university systems similar to the UK's. Nevertheless, since domestic universities are sensitive to global rankings, they are making strenuous efforts to rise in the rankings.
For global hospital evaluations, the US weekly magazine Newsweek and the global data firm Statista have jointly conducted the only World's Best Hospitals ranking annually since 2019. However, global evaluation of hospitals is difficult due to strong national specificities. Newsweek's evaluation also relies heavily on peer surveys (about 50% weight), so its reliability is not necessarily high. However, as it is the only global hospital evaluation, large domestic university hospitals are doing their best to obtain relatively high rankings in this assessment.
Accordingly, Institute of University Evaluation Inc. will develop optimized global standard evaluation models for domestic universities/corporations/hospitals. By establishing a new virtuous cycle system of private-led big data evaluation platforms and AI consulting solutions that allow active participation from students, patients, and the public, we will lead active investment and interest from the nation and society.
CEO Kim Seung-woo