Just a Pamphlet Counts as Research? Shocking Reality of National University Research Grants

[Anchor]

Research grants for arts professors at many national universities across the country are being disbursed without proper verification. An examination of regulations at 27 national universities through information disclosure requests revealed that about 60% of the surveyed schools, including Kyungpook National University, recognize a single exhibition pamphlet as valid research performance regardless of whether the exhibition actually took place.

Nam Hyo-ju of TBC reports.

[Reporter]

Research performance for design professors at Kyungpook National University is primarily evaluated through exhibitions.

This is due to the nature of the arts and physical education fields.

Points are awarded based on the type of exhibition, and accumulating 15 points or more allows professors to receive research grants.

The highest score is awarded for an "authorized solo exhibition," which alone grants 30 points.

The problem is that these points can be easily obtained with just a single pamphlet, regardless of the actual occurrence of the event.

[Kyungpook National University Design Department Assistant : It's easy. If you have a previous file, you just change the date and location on the original file, so it's very easy.]

What about other national universities?

According to regulations from 27 national universities nationwide obtained by reporters through information disclosure requests, a total of 23 institutions recognize exhibitions as research achievements.

Among them, about 60%, or 14 universities, were found to grant research recognition simply upon submission of a single pamphlet.

On the other hand, only 6 universities required onsite photos or videos.

Only three universities—Hanbat National University, Korea National University of Education, and Korea National University of Transportation—regulated the size of the exhibition venue.

[Lee Joo-young / Reform Party Lawmaker : A lack of even the most basic verification steps to check whether an exhibition actually took place inevitably undermines the credibility of arts education.]

As of 2026, the total scale of research grants for professors at Kyungpook National University stands at 16.5 billion won.

Loosely verified research achievements are reportedly being used not only for research grants but also as data for faculty salary evaluations and tenure appointments.

(Video by Park Jong-young from TBC, Graphics by Kim Se-yoon from TBC)

Nam Hyo-ju, TBC
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.