Students might have seen some placards saying disagreeing with making a national university a corporate university. This matter, the argument of making a national university a corporate university, has been quite serious. Even, a professor was taken by the police for violent demonstration. Then, what is to make a national university a corporate university?

 There are representative national universities of Korea, such as Seoul National University, Busan National University, Jeonnam National University, Jeonbuk National University, Kyoungsang National University, Kyoungbuk National University, Gangwon National University, and Cheju National University. These schools represent the region where they are located and have pride as national universities. In addtion, these schools have the advantages of cheaper tuition fees and more support from the government than private schools, as well as credible name recognition as a national university abroad. Thus, to change a national university to a corporate one, which takes away those advantages from a national university, has been a highly controversial issue.   
 There are two separate opinions on changing a national university to a corporate one. People who are for this matter say that national universities should participate in the worldwide competition to change themselves, giving an example of Tokyo University, which gets the best grade by having changed itself to a corporate university.
 However, people who are against this matter say that it could be just making money among universities in order to expand their finances and that there would be a big gap between some national universities like Seoul National University that get comparably more financial supports  and the other universities. Both supporter and opponents have logical reasons, but as a student of a national university, changing a national university to a corporate one seems not to be  appropriate yet for Korean national universities.
 First, universities that compete in the country could be taken over. However, regardless of national or private universities, most schools in Korea have been trying to develop competitiveness in the world. Is being changed to a corporate university the only way to make national universities competitive? It could mean being in collusion with companies or executives, so there would be great development and expansion of finances and applied science. On the other hand, pure science or fundamental studies would not benefit by the change and would not even be a target of concern. Therefore, a scholastic institution, a national university would become a money-oriented institution by devoting itself to lucrative businesses rather than to learning. This is putting the cart before the horse.
 Second, self-regulation of a university should be pursued, guaranteeing public interests and expanding democracy within a university. However, making a national university a corporate one is to tighten the control of university and to commit the management of a university to the board of directors, which consists of people from outside of a university. Therefore, though supporters insist that changing to a corporate university would bring more self-regulation to a university, it will tighten the control of university through financial means of a university, just changing direct control of a government to the indirect control of the board of directors.
 Third, changing a national university to a corporate one promotes the custom of ranking universities and deepens the gap in national universities. If a national university becomes a corporate university, the government would decrease financial support for national universities little by little and support national universities discriminately according to the evaluation of the management of a national university every six years. Therefore, among universities, those that proceed other universities in finances and human resources would get more supports, and the gap would increase not only in national universities but also between top class universities in Seoul and other universities. It is a harsh policy for local universities and would not solve the problem of ranking universities.
 Fourth, the increased tuition fees would be a burden to students. Since a national university has the advantage of cheaper tuition fees than the one of a private school, there are many students who want to go only to a national university. For example, at CNU, students major in the Humanities pay under 1,500,000 won, and students in engineering pay under 2,500,000 won for their tuition fees. This is very low compared with the fees of private schools. Moreover, almost half of students at CNU get a scholarship, such as BK21 scholarships, NURI scholarships, and intramural scholarship due to the well-made and supported scholarship system. However, as the fact that the tuition of Japanese universities was increased five times within 2 to 3 years after changing to corporate universities, the tuition fee of Korean national universities surely would be increased. Eventually, it would bring the increase of tuition fees to private universities too and deepen educational inequality.
 Fifth, making a national university a corporate university would make a problem for the workers at the national university who are public officers. If a national university becomes a corporate university, the public officers become non-public officers. It generates flexible personnel management, and thus regular reconstruction. Therefore, it increases the instability of employment, and a collaborative relationship between the university authorities and the school personnel would not be expected.
 Due to these reasons, changing a national university to a corporate university is not appropriate to the actual circumstances of Korean national universities. In order to keep step with globalization, we need to develop competitiveness. However, to do this, it would be better to find a way that can improve all national universities effectively and indiscriminately and upgrade the present situation rather than to focus on the development of studies that makes immediate gains for schools, which is changing a national university to a corporate university.