The Education Ministry's RISE (Regional Innovation System for Education) program, which transfers financial support authority to local governments, has seen its budget soar to 21.4 trillion won this year. However, concerns have been raised about the lack of transparency regarding how these funds are utilized and the outcomes of the support provided. Despite the significant taxpayer investment, the program's operations have been criticized for their opacity, making it difficult to verify allegations of misallocation.
On July 20, the University Education Research Institute (UERI) released a report titled 'Is the RISE Program Transparently Disclosed?' According to the report, among the 17 local governments managing the RISE program, only Daegu has publicly disclosed detailed budget information.
The RISE initiative aims to enable local governments to provide concentrated support to universities in line with regional development. The budget for this program has increased dramatically, from 354 billion won in 2023 to 1.2 trillion won in 2024, 2 trillion won in 2025, and now 21.4 trillion won this year.
To assess the transparency of the RISE program, UERI filed requests for information regarding the detailed budget and support outcomes for universities with the 17 local governments. The analysis revealed that only Daegu provided comprehensive information about the program's objectives, overview, and detailed budget breakdown on its website. In contrast, the other 16 local governments either listed only total amounts in their revenue and expenditure budgets or posted implementation plans and announcements without providing specific budgetary justifications.
The disclosure of 'university-specific support results' was even less satisfactory. Only five of the 17 local governments reported that they would disclose support results, with only Seoul providing the names of individual universities and the specific amounts of support. Gyeonggi and Chungnam only revealed the names of selected universities, while Jeonnam and Jeonbuk aggregated support totals by project. The remaining 12 local governments did not disclose any support results.
Previously, when the Education Ministry directly managed university financial support programs, detailed budgets and explanatory materials were made publicly available. However, since the implementation of RISE, the ministry's budget reports only indicate the total amount of 21.4 trillion won, leaving no way to trace the flow of funds.
UERI stated, "While the Education Ministry has pointed out issues of fairness and patronage in the RISE program, the current publicly available data does not even allow us to confirm whether such problems exist, rendering transparency impossible."
In April, the Education Ministry announced a restructuring of the RISE program as 'ANCHOR' (a system for nurturing regional talent) and pledged to improve the program's allocation practices.
Im Eun-hee, a researcher at UERI, emphasized, "As the program has been restructured into the ANCHOR system, the disclosure system must also be revised. Local governments should be required to publicly disclose the budget size, detailed breakdowns, and university support results on the ANCHOR website, and the Education Ministry must establish a management and oversight system to monitor local governments' compliance with information disclosure requirements."
On July 20, the University Education Research Institute (UERI) released a report titled 'Is the RISE Program Transparently Disclosed?' According to the report, among the 17 local governments managing the RISE program, only Daegu has publicly disclosed detailed budget information.
The RISE initiative aims to enable local governments to provide concentrated support to universities in line with regional development. The budget for this program has increased dramatically, from 354 billion won in 2023 to 1.2 trillion won in 2024, 2 trillion won in 2025, and now 21.4 trillion won this year.
To assess the transparency of the RISE program, UERI filed requests for information regarding the detailed budget and support outcomes for universities with the 17 local governments. The analysis revealed that only Daegu provided comprehensive information about the program's objectives, overview, and detailed budget breakdown on its website. In contrast, the other 16 local governments either listed only total amounts in their revenue and expenditure budgets or posted implementation plans and announcements without providing specific budgetary justifications.
The disclosure of 'university-specific support results' was even less satisfactory. Only five of the 17 local governments reported that they would disclose support results, with only Seoul providing the names of individual universities and the specific amounts of support. Gyeonggi and Chungnam only revealed the names of selected universities, while Jeonnam and Jeonbuk aggregated support totals by project. The remaining 12 local governments did not disclose any support results.
Previously, when the Education Ministry directly managed university financial support programs, detailed budgets and explanatory materials were made publicly available. However, since the implementation of RISE, the ministry's budget reports only indicate the total amount of 21.4 trillion won, leaving no way to trace the flow of funds.
UERI stated, "While the Education Ministry has pointed out issues of fairness and patronage in the RISE program, the current publicly available data does not even allow us to confirm whether such problems exist, rendering transparency impossible."
In April, the Education Ministry announced a restructuring of the RISE program as 'ANCHOR' (a system for nurturing regional talent) and pledged to improve the program's allocation practices.
Im Eun-hee, a researcher at UERI, emphasized, "As the program has been restructured into the ANCHOR system, the disclosure system must also be revised. Local governments should be required to publicly disclose the budget size, detailed breakdowns, and university support results on the ANCHOR website, and the Education Ministry must establish a management and oversight system to monitor local governments' compliance with information disclosure requirements."
* This article has been translated by AI.
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