Mokpo National University and civic groups in the region are pushing back against the selection of a candidate institution for a new national medical school in South Jeolla Province and Gwangju, after Mokpo was passed over in the evaluation. The backlash has raised concerns that tensions between the eastern and western parts of the planned Jeonnam-Gwangju integrated special city could deepen following the collapse of the university merger plan.
The central government and the Jeonnam-Gwangju integrated special city have pledged to support the development of medical infrastructure in the southwestern region, including Mokpo, but local opposition shows no sign of abating.
The Mokpo branch of Citizens' Coalition for Economic Justice said Friday it had filed a complaint with the South Jeolla Provincial Police Agency, calling for an investigation into all eight members of the evaluation committee that recommended the national medical school candidate, on charges including obstruction of official duties through deception.
In the complaint, the group alleged that the evaluators had failed to conduct the review properly and may have colluded in advance or been subject to inducements, and asked that the matter be investigated.
The group took particular issue with Suncheon National University's plan to lease forest land owned by Suncheon city as the site for its medical school and affiliated hospital, arguing this violates the requirements for establishing a national university facility, and called for a thorough probe into the evaluation process.
"Mokpo National University holds 150,000 square meters of state-owned land at its Yonghae-dong campus — there is absolutely no problem with a national university building facilities there — yet it lost out to Suncheon National University, which proposed a site leased from the city," a representative of the group said. "The fact that the evaluation proceeded despite the site not meeting the requirements for a national university facility strongly suggests the committee members colluded beforehand."
Mokpo National University has also filed for legal action to have the candidate designation overturned.
The university submitted a request to the Gwangju High Prosecutors Office to delegate litigation authority to the state, as a step toward filing a suit seeking cancellation of the candidate selection and recommendation.
As a national university, Mokpo National University must have the minister of justice bring any lawsuit on its behalf. Once litigation authority is granted, the university plans to file suit at the Gwangju District Court and simultaneously seek a stay of execution to suspend the effect of the integrated special city mayor's candidate selection and recommendation.
The university also submitted a formal objection to the Ministry of Education, arguing that the process for recommending a national medical school candidate was unfair.
Political parties and civic organizations in Mokpo held a press conference Friday in front of the Muan government building of the Jeonnam-Gwangju special city, demanding that allegations of inadequate verification of the evaluation, site acquisition plans, and faculty recruitment plans be brought to light.
"If the verification of site and faculty acquisition plans was found to be insufficient, or if procedural flaws are confirmed, the evaluation must be conducted from scratch," they said, urging the integrated city to release the full evaluation results.
National Assembly members Kim Won-i and Seo Mi-hwa, Mokpo Mayor Kang Seong-hwi, Mokpo City Council Speaker Lee Hyeong-wan, members of the integrated city council and Mokpo City Council representing the Mokpo area, and Mokpo National University held a joint press conference at the National Assembly's communication center Friday, calling for a full review of the candidate recommendation process for the South Jeolla national medical school.
"A university that had not secured the legally required site participated in the evaluation with nothing but a blueprint, and was assessed by the same standards as a university that already had its site in place," they said. "This is a serious violation of the evaluation criteria."
They further argued that while the operational guidelines of the Jeonnam Research Institute called for eight committee members to be evenly distributed across five areas of expertise — with two specialists in medical facility design and construction to be appointed — none of the actual evaluators held such expertise. They also said the need to establish a new medical school in the region, the very purpose of the project to improve healthcare access in underserved areas, had been excluded as an evaluation criterion.
Mokpo local council members plan to hold a press conference in front of Cheong Wa Dae on Saturday to call for the evaluation to be withdrawn.
sij@heraldcorp.com
