The Korean government has decided to lift the designation of four state-invested science and engineering schools as public institutions, granting them discretion in faculty recruitment and budgeting. The government will also introduce a wage system linked to job performance instead of seniority-based pay system in 100 public institutions by next year.

The plan was announced by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance Choo Kyung-ho during a steering committee meeting for public institutions on Monday.

The government aims to expand the job and performance-based pay system to more than 200 out of 347 public institutions by 2027, the minister said.

At the end of 2021, only 35 public institutions have introduced a merit-based payment system.

The government decided to provide more incentives to encourage them to change their pay system.

The government also lifted the designation of the four major institutes as public institutions, which means there will be no state meddling when recruiting influential scholars or expanding faculty in terms of total labor cost restrictions. They are Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology and Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology.

Meanwhile, the government finalized a plan to change 43 existing public enterprises and quasi-governmental institutions to other public institutions. Under the plan, the number of public companies and quasi-governmental organizations directly under the supervision of the Ministry of Economy and Finance will be reduced to 87 from 130, and the number of other public institutions under autonomous management of each government unit will be increased to 260 from 220.

By Lee Jong-hyuk and Minu Kim

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]