2023-10-18 20:09:38
Panoramic view of the Ministry of Education building within the Sejong Government Complex. yunhap news
An analysis showed that half of the educational land owned by 14 private university corporations in the metropolitan area (four times the area of Yeouido) is forest land (forests, fields, wastelands, etc.) in areas far from the universities. As it is nominally educational land, it should be used for education and research purposes, but there is little room to utilize forest land far from schools for education, leading to criticism that universities are holding useless real estate assets for profit purposes. As a result of analysis of the ‘Status of educational land for private universities’ as of April 2022 received from the Ministry of Education by Seo Dong-yong, a member of the National Assembly’s Education Committee, there were a total of 14 private university corporations in the metropolitan area holding ‘educational land of more than 1 million ㎡.’ The area of educational land they own is 73.29 million m2, which is nine times the area of Yeouido. Among these, regarding half, or 32.66 million ㎡, was found to be land located far away from the university’s main campus (land located in a city or city other than the main campus or branch campus). Looking at land use, 98% (32.16 million ㎡) was forest land, mostly hillsides. The university corporation that owns the most remote land is Kyung Hee Academy (Kyung Hee University), with an area of 12.73 million m2. It is 7.5 times the size of the Kyung Hee University campus (school site), and most of it (11.4 million ㎡) is forest land in Yeongdong-gun, North Chungcheong Province. An official from Kyung Hee University said, “The land was donated by someone who served as temporary director of the university foundation in the past, and students in forestry-related departments are utilizing this land for practical training.” Next, Dongguk University (Dongguk University), an educational corporation, had the second largest amount, owning 7.48 million ㎡ of remote land in Gangneung and Yangyang, Gangwon-do. Korea Central Academy (Korea University) also owns 6.96 million ㎡ of land, which is half of the total educational land, in areas completely different from the university campus, such as Cheorwon and Yangyang in Gangwon-do and Goesan in North Chungcheong Province. Forests owned by universities are sometimes used for educational purposes, such as academic forests, but the area is too large and distance restrictions are large, so there are clear limitations in using them for student education or research activities. In fact, an official from a university in Seoul said regarding remote forests, “I understand that most of them were acquired through donations,” but “It seems difficult to use them for education or research.” Moreover, property tax and acquisition tax are exempted for educational land, but if it is revealed that the land has been neglected for more than three years for purposes not suitable for education or research, it must be repaid. This is why there are suspicions that real estate assets that have no usability value and are subject to tax burden are being held with the expectation of an ‘increase in land prices’. Rep. Seo Dong-yong said, “Educational land at universities that has been left unused for a long period of time is enough to raise suspicions that excessive land was held in anticipation of an increase in land prices.” He pointed out, “We must take action to actively sell it at the corporate level, and return it to educational use so that it can be used to improve the education and research environment.” Reporter Kim Min-je summer@hani.co.kr
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