At a working-level committee meeting, held at Sunchon National University, the five national universities (CNU, Mokpo National University, Mokpo National Maritime University, Sunchon National University, and Yosu National University) finalized a project plan and will talk over with the Ministry of Education and Human Resources for this project. In line with the government
s regional innovation system, the five universities have agreed to start a cooperative system including joint research projects. Once the discussions among the five universities on the project plan have been completed and the consultation with the Ministry starts, the implementation of the university consortium will be accelerated. The finalized plan includes: a) the backgrounds, objectives, and need for the university consortium system; b) the goals, implementation system, and fundamental direction concerning implementation strategies; c) the fundamental system regarding to organization, implementation process, and role assignments for each campus; d) the strategies to enhance competitiveness of the combined university; e) the expected benefits; f) a measure to establish the combined university of Gwangju and Jeonnam; g) and the cases of overseas universities. According to the plan, the project implementation procedures have three stages. At the first stage, a law for establishing a combined university will be enacted and the combined university system will be launched. At the second stage of the project implementation from 2005 through 2008, each campus will actively foster its specialized sector according to the role assignment decision. At the final stage from 2009 through 2010, the combined university system will be settled down. For a joint faculty program on each campus, the five selected colleges which have similar curriculums will standardize their educational courses and receive an international accreditation by meeting global standards. For this program, six departments including philosophy, law, bioscience and information technology, have already initiated curriculum standardization. In order to enhance the combined university
s competitiveness, new faculties such as the faculty of international studies, the faculty of culture, and the faculty of oriental medicine, will be established. Under the combined university system plan, the entrance quota for undergraduate and graduate programs will be cut down by about 10 percent annually by 2010 from the current quota of 14,012 in 2004. In 2010, the entrance quota will be about 8,000. \"When the combined university is established in Gwangju and Jeonnam, a world-class university will be born in a local area. It will take a pivotal role for the balanced national development.\" said Dean Kim Hyun-tae of CNU
s Planning & Cooperation Office, who is serving as chairman of the working-level committee for the university consortium project.