Suncheon National University rejects mediator's proposal, fueling anger in Mokpo region
Merger negotiations between Mokpo National University and Suncheon National University — pursued on the premise of establishing a national medical school — are heading toward collapse.
A mediation proposal put forward Monday by the South Jeolla-Gwangju Transition Planning Committee, the transition team of Gwangju-South Jeolla Special City Mayor Min Hyeong-bae, fell apart after Suncheon National University rejected it. The plan would have placed the unified university's main campus and medical school in Mokpo, a teaching hospital in Suncheon, and an additional teaching hospital in the western region at a later date.
Suncheon National University issued a statement firmly opposing the proposal. "We cannot accept the current biased proposal, which places not only the unified university's main campus and medical school but also a teaching hospital in Mokpo, while assigning only a teaching hospital to Suncheon," it said.
The university took a hard line, citing past cases in which national university mergers left campuses without a main administration stripped of their former standing and caused negative ripple effects on local economies.
With Mayor Min's national medical school mediation proposal in effect dead after Suncheon National University's rejection, communities in the Mokpo region reacted with fury, issuing condemnatory statements.
Mokpo city and its city council issued a joint statement Tuesday urging the government to act. "The western region has a preventable mortality rate below the national average and has been the most neglected medically underserved area in South Korea," the statement said. "Establishing a national medical school and teaching hospital must be approached from the perspective of national public health policy." The statement called on the government to "take follow-up measures so that the golden window for President Lee Jae Myung's state agenda of establishing medical schools in regions without one is not missed."
Kim Won-i, a National Assembly lawmaker representing Mokpo, also lashed out on his Facebook page. "This was the greatest opportunity we had under the Lee Jae Myung administration. Why should Mokpo residents suffer because of Suncheon National University's greed?" he wrote. "Suncheon National University no longer has the right to talk about attracting a medical school."
As the merger talks teetered on the verge of collapse and the South Jeolla-Gwangju Transition Planning Committee shifted its stance to one of "respecting the outcome of autonomous consultations between the two universities," Suncheon National University on Tuesday immediately welcomed the development and formally proposed direct talks between the two institutions to Mokpo National University.
A Suncheon National University official said the allocation of authority — including the location of the medical school and the main campus — "must be determined according to objective criteria and procedures, such as population size, medical demand, fiscal feasibility, sustainability and suitability for medical education accreditation, not political deadlines and pressure." The official added, "Agreement between the two universities as the parties involved, not third-party mediation, is the only path to a conclusion."
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