The gloomy reality of the part-time lecturers has been brought to light with ten lecturers having committed suicide over the past 10 years. Korea University Lecturer Union (KULU) is striving to regain the status of faculty for irregular professors through direct confrontation with the government. While they are shouting for their voices to be heard, the majority of university students are still ignorant of this issue.

The problem of irregular workers has become one of Korean society’s greatest challenges. Part-time university lecturers are often called “pedlars of academia,” going from one college to another in order to support themselves. They basically have no rights, suffering from poor job security and poor salaries, also deprived of faculty status.

Since September 2007, university lecturers have protested in front of the national Assembly in hope of forcing to amend the Higher education Act. In 2011, the national Assembly passed a bill to recognize the status of teachers. However, the schools are trying to find loopholes in order to take advantage of the lecturers at a bargain price once again.

A recent survey by Ministry of education, Science and Technology (MeST) in 2011 showed that part-time professors suffered from employment instability in that 88.3 percent were temporarily hired for a maximum of six months. Also, insurance benefits are rarely provided to irregular lecturers. Under these circumstances, it is no surprise that the cornered lecturers are willing to do anything, even committing bribery or corruption to become a regular professor and break out of the vicious circle.

Korea University (KU) is known to have the largest number of part-time lecturers of the total 2915, which comprises 65 percent of the faculty. KU’s tuition had been continuously increasing, but ironically, education standards have plummeted, along with the working conditions of irregular professors at KU. The school is paying wages to adjunct professors that are only 10 percent those of regular professors.

In February, members of KUlU camped out in front of KU’s Main Hall. Placards around the campus requested modifications to current school policies and demanded better treatment of irregular professors at KU. The requests from KUlU are as follows: raise lecturer wages, pay wages to lecturers during vacation, reduce class size, replace relative evaluation with absolute evaluation, install a lab room at the college, and employ full-time faculty at graduate schools.

“Lecturers, who are perceived as having power, actually are more like slaves to their owner, the head of the university,” said Kim Young Kon, a former lecturer at KU and now the leading figure of the KUlU KU chapter. He added, “The school’s budget surplus is tremendous. If KU can waste less funds on construction of new buildings and real estate investment, enhancing working conditions for part-time lecturers should not be a huge financial burden.” Kim argued that the first and most important thing is that lecturers need to recover their status and authority as personnel at the university.

Despite KUlU’s insistent request, the school board has asked to remove the tent, but has shown no change of heart. KU and MeST were planning to hold a public hearing regarding this topic on the Anam campus on August 8. However, it ended up being cancelled due to the severe antagonism between the two groups.

The struggle is not only for part-time lecturers but for all, because this issue relates to students. Sometimes, the lecturers have been fired even after students had already registered for the fired lecturers’ courses. This can be seen as a violation to the students’ right to education. Also, since lecturers do not have authority and status within the school, this can greatly reduce the lecturers’ responsibility to students, as well as the quality of their lectures. With adjunct lecturers taking charge of nearly half of all classes, improved working conditions for them should bode well for students’ futures.

Regarding this issue, students’ opinions seem to diverge. Some students have been involved in KUlU’s events, demanding better treatment for adjunct lecturers. Jung Ji Yeon (’12, History) said, “I believe it is an urgent issue at KU. The lecturers teach us the same as professors do, but they are treated too unfairly. There should be enhancement in the treatment of part-time lecturers.” However, other KU students express many doubts regarding KUlU’s intentions. “I do not agree with KUlU’s actions not because of what they are requesting, but because of how they are asking for it. I think their actions have crossed the line,” said Bae Ji Hyon (’12, liberal Arts). Yet most of the students are not aware of or ignorant regarding this issue.

While this controversy is prevalent throughout the nation, a compromise between the two groups is expected to be made shortly. Keeping a vigilant watch on this issue is required for students.

 

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