Amendment proposed to weigh student votes at least 50% in university president elections

A lawmaker has proposed an amendment to the Educational Officials Act that would weigh student votes at a minimum of 50 percent in university presidential elections.

Students at a university in Gwangju [YONHAP]

An amendment to allow student votes to be weighted at least 50 percent in university president elections has been proposed.

Lawmaker Kim Young-ho of the Democratic Party announced Wednesday that he proposed an amendment to the Educational Officials Act that would require national universities to weigh student votes at a minimum of 50 percent. The act only applies to national and public universities.

The amendment also stipulated that students, professors and non-teaching staff should decide how much weight each group's votes will be given after consulting with all parties.

"University president elections at national universities are referred to as direct elections because all members of the school can participate, but in reality, it's closer to an indirect electoral system," said Lawmaker Kim. "The [Educational Officials] Act implemented in December 2021 states that university president elections should be held in a way that all members of the university have agreed upon, but elections at many universities give more weight to the votes of professors."

According to data from 38 national universities submitted to Kim, student votes were given an average weight of 10 percent for university president elections held between 2019 and 2023.

Professor votes were given an average 72.55 percent weight and the votes of non-teaching staff were given an average weight of 17.52 percent.

"Like how a country belongs to its people, universities belong to the students," said the lawmaker. "Ensuring students' voting rights in university president elections is essential to protecting the autonomy of universities and the values of democracy."

"Not only national universities that are subject to the Educational Officials Act, but also private universities should also ensure that the students voices are adequately reflected in president elections to ensure institutional autonomy."

BY LEE TAE-HEE [lee.taehee2@joongang.co.kr]