A Gangwon Provincial Assembly member has said the research output of professors at Gangwon Provincial College fails to meet basic standards, with faculty averaging just 0.7 published papers per person per year.
Yun Mi-gyeong, a member of the assembly's Planning, Safety and Fire Department Committee, raised the issue Wednesday during an administrative audit of Gangwon Provincial College, questioning whether the institution's current research capacity would be sufficient to meet the demands expected of it after a planned merger with Gangwon National University.
The college's record stands in stark contrast to Gangwon National University, which has been working to join President Lee Jae-myung's initiative to create 10 universities on par with Seoul National University — leaving Gangwon National University in the awkward position of having more cause for embarrassment than the provincial college itself.
According to audit materials, the nine full professors at Gangwon Provincial College published or had accepted a combined seven papers in 2023, five in 2024 and seven in 2025 — a total of 19 over three years. That works out to roughly 0.7 papers per faculty member per year, falling short of even one paper annually per person.
"I fully understand that the provincial college is a vocational institution that prioritizes practical education and employment," Yun said, "but being a vocational college does not mean research — one of the fundamental duties of university faculty — can be neglected."
Yun also pointed to the launch of a future development council between Gangwon National University and the provincial college on Sept. 15, part of Gangwon Province's "one province, one national university" policy, and questioned whether merger preparations were producing any real results.
"While merger talks are under way, I want to ask whether anyone is actually checking whether faculty have sufficient research capacity," Yun said. "With the current research record, we need a concrete answer for how the college will fulfill the roles in education, research and industry-academia cooperation that will be required of a member institution of a regional hub national university after the merger."
Yun added that output had slipped from seven papers in 2023 to five in 2024 before returning to seven in 2025. "If measures to revitalize research are being pursued, the results need to show what has actually changed," Yun said.
Yun called on the college to closely examine each professor's research activity and the characteristics of individual disciplines, and to conduct a comprehensive assessment that goes beyond published papers to include joint industry research and technology development. Yun also urged the college to verify the effectiveness of its research support and performance evaluation systems, and to draw up a concrete capacity-building plan aligned with the roles it will be expected to take on after the merger.
Yun urged the college to first verify whether it has the substantive capacity to carry out those post-merger responsibilities.
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