The universities and colleges in Korea cut their annual budgets for part-time lecturers citing the falling registration of new students and subsequent deterioration of financial situation. Part-time lecturers preparing for the new semester starting in spring are likely to face a serious job crisis this year.
Daegu University, for example, will increase the lecturing hours for full-time lecturers to 15 hours a week. According to the enforcement ordinance of the higher education act, the lecturing hours for full-time lecturers in principle shall be 9 hours a week, subject to the decision of the head of universities and colleges otherwise.
Part-time lectures in the Daegu University take up some 50% of the total lectures. When part-time lecturers are restricted from lecturing major subjects, full-time lecturers have to take up six hours more a week which had been covered by three or four part-time lecturers who would then lose their teaching jobs.
Lecturing fee for the part-time lecturers at Daegu University is 77,500 won(US$64.20) per hour and over-time lecturing fee for full-time lecturers is 24,000 won(US$19.88) per hour for first 1 to 3 hours exceeding 9 hours and 36,000 won(US$29.82) for second 4 to 6 exceeding hours.
The university is calculating that lecturing fees for full-time lecturers for additional lecturing hours exceeding 9 hours are lower than that of part-time lecturers. "The university is compromising the quality of education with the cost-cutting", said the Korean Irregular Professors Union(KIPU) Daegu University union local. The union also added that the university reduces some 20 part-time lecturers annually in recent years.
reported by Lee Eun-young
translated by Kim Sung-jin