Salary of 300m won, settlement bonus of 300m won, 1.2m won monthly allowance: SNU's three presidential candidates court professors

Three candidates for the 29th president of Seoul National University have been confirmed, as the institution moves forward with selecting a finalist amid debate over the feasibility of sweeping pledges on fiscal expansion and faculty compensation.

According to SNU's Presidential Recommendation Committee, the three confirmed candidates are Kang Jun-ho, a professor in the College of Education; Choi Hae-cheon, a professor in the College of Engineering; and Lee Jae-young, a professor in the College of Humanities. The confirmation was made Thursday.

A policy evaluation panel composed of faculty, staff and students assessed four candidates Tuesday, with Kang finishing first. Choi and Lee followed. The evaluation was based on three criteria: policy content and feasibility in areas such as education and research (40 percent), vision and leadership (40 percent), and international perspective (20 percent).

All three candidates put forward ambitious pledges centered on improving faculty compensation and expanding the university's finances. Kang proposed a target annual salary of 300 million won ($224,000) for full professors. His plan calls for first raising the current salary of roughly 130 million won to around 200 million won, increasing pay for associate and assistant professors as well, and then lifting salaries to 300 million won for professors who demonstrate strong research output.

To fund the increases, Kang cited reallocation of existing budgets, expansion of revenue-generating activities and monetization of intellectual property. His plan also includes issuing university bonds and making use of idle assets held by SNU.

Choi set a goal of raising 2 trillion won in new endowment funds over his four-year term. He plans to secure the money through initiatives such as "SNU Mega Frontier Partners," a strategic partnership program targeting corporations and their top executives. He also pledged to raise the settlement bonus for newly hired professors to 300 million won, expand the number of endowed chairs from the current 12 to 100, and create up to 100 special endowed chair positions for professors who wish to continue teaching and conducting research after retirement.

Lee pledged to grow SNU's total assets from around 6 trillion won to 10 trillion won by 2030. He identified education revenue, diversification of income-generating businesses, corporate and foundation research donations, and an alumni development fund as sources of financing.

Lee also plans to raise 1 trillion won through an alumni development fund and bring in a private-sector chief financial officer and investment committee members to strengthen asset management expertise. He pledged to raise the monthly faculty activity allowance from 200,000 won to 1.2 million won and increase base salaries by 7 percent starting next year.

The heavy focus on faculty pay and fiscal expansion in the candidates' platforms reflects an evaluation structure in which faculty members hold considerable sway over the selection process. The policy evaluation panel consists of 453 members — 394 faculty, 55 staff and 4 teachers from affiliated schools. Student input, regardless of participation numbers, is weighted at just 9.5 percent of the faculty panel's headcount, and only one of the 30 members on the Presidential Recommendation Committee is a student.

Critics say this structure makes it difficult for the views of students and other non-faculty members to be adequately reflected in candidate evaluations. In an environment where faculty hold outsized influence, candidates have strong incentives to emphasize professor-friendly pledges, while commitments that balance the interests of the broader university community tend to receive less attention.

The feasibility of the large-scale pledges also remains an open question. Endowment drives and asset growth depend heavily on external factors such as corporate and alumni donations and investment returns, meaning candidates will need to back their targets with source-by-source funding projections and concrete timelines.

The Presidential Recommendation Committee will forward the three confirmed candidates to the SNU Board of Trustees, which will then select one finalist. The chosen candidate will be formally nominated by the Minister of Education before the president appoints the next SNU president.