A head of recruiting students of regular decision, local universities are struggling to recruit first-year students. PNU, the Flagship National University representing *PUK is not an exception. Flagship National Universities offer quality education to the local talents and help graduated students to play diverse roles in the various fields of society. However, the reputation and enrollment of local universities, including PNU, is rapidly decreasing, and the crisis is intensifying day by day.

   This year, 83% of the students who got admitted to PNU gave up their admission (83% contains double applicant, for example, applying both early decision and regular decision). The number of PNU’s recruitment in 2021 was 4567, and 3825 of the students on the list declined and went to other universities. The other problem is that the rate of students giving up on going to PNU is increasing quickly. The rate in 2016 was 47.7% but increased by 36% in five years to 83.7%. In addition, it rose by about 10% last year alone. Most of the students who gave up entering local universities, including PNU, are presumed to have gone to universities in Seoul. The number of 2021 unfilled new students in 331 universities totaled 45866, accounting for 8.6% of the total number of recruitments. 34458 of them were in the non-metropolitan area, accounting for 75% of the total number of unfilled students. The unfilled rate of the metropolitan area was 5.3%. In comparison, the unfilled rate of the non-metropolitan area was 10.8%, which was twice as high as in the urban area. PNU did not fill the freshmen quota for 2021, therefore, 90 students were additionally recruited after the regular recruitment. What caused this phenomenon?

    The first reason for the continuation of this phenomenon is the structural problem of the concentration of the capital region. This led to a shortage of local jobs. Students go to the metropolitan area at the first place because there are no good jobs in the local area even though they graduate from flagship national universities. In actuality, 91 companies in the top 100 nation’s sales ranking in 2020 are concentrated in metropolitan areas such as Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Incheon. There is not a single headquarter in Busan. The other reason is the lack of the government’s financial support and investments in various aspects, compared to Seoul National University (SNU) and other prestigious private universities in Seoul. According to the audit of state affairs, among the 672 universities nationwide in 2021, national subsidies for three universities, which are SNU, Korea University, Yonsei University in 2014 to 2018, amounted to
6.56 trillion. This is 10% of the total higher education finance of the nation. Nevertheless, the PNU’s education expenditure supported by the government per person was
19.2 million, while this is only 39.7% of SNU’s supported amount of
48.27 million.

   Furthermore, the Hyowon Herald had interviewed PNU students to listen to their opinions on this. Kim Gyu-Hwi (19, Dept. of Ethics Education) said, “As the concentration of the metropolitan area phenomenon appeared, the atmosphere that students can learn well only if they go to the capital area was diffused to the area. The fundamental solution to the problem of abandoning the admission issue of PNU and local universities is to eradicate such social atmosphere. There must be a change in stereotypes and social perception that success and getting a job are possible only in Seoul and the metropolitan area.” Choi Hye-Seo (19, Dept. of Media & Communication) said, “Today, the Seoul Republic phenomenon is deeply rooted in our society. All infrastructures are excessively concentrated in Seoul. The entrance score of some lower-level universities in Seoul is significantly lower than that of PNU’s entrance score. However, my friends chose the university in the metropolitan area because the university is in Seoul and considered their job opportunities and employment in the long term. In reality, significant companies and most prominent firms are in the capital area and have a well-established social infrastructure. The government should make efforts to promote balanced developments of the metropolitan areas and nonmetropolitan areas and improve its attitude to attract and utilize the talents in the region.” Kang Seo-Young (19, Dept. of International Trade) said, “We should no longer believe the title of flagship university, and that PNU is SNU of Busan. As the low birthrate continues and the schoolage population is decreasing, it is time for universities to prepare various benefits to attract and retain students.”

   On the broadcast, PNU President Cha Jeong-In, said, “Concentration of the metropolitan area is a social structural problem, so there is a limit to individual universities’ efforts. For example, local employment quota system is implemented in an innovative city, and such policies should be furthered outlined and improved. The government should recognize the cultivation of local talents as a problem of the industry of the whole country and improve it to have an active attitude to attract and utilize the talents in the region. They should play a role in institutional supplementations, such as expanding the local mandatory system and local development law.”

*PUK: the area of Pusan (although these days, Busan is more widely used than Pusan), Ulsan, and KyeongNam (which is more commonly known as Gyeonsangam-do).