Regional universities' key funding has undergone a significant change in just one year, with the 'Regional Innovation Center University Support System (RISE)' being completely transformed into the 'Regional Growth Talent Development System (ANCHOR)' starting in 2026. This shift aims to resolve the misalignment in higher education finance caused by conflicts between central and local authorities.
Beginning in 2025, the RISE program will be fully implemented across 17 cities and provinces, linking local development strategies with the delegation of financial authority for university support to local governments. The Ministry of Education plans to execute 99.6% of the 1.941 trillion won budget, amounting to 1.933 trillion won, through grants to local governments. Each city and province will have a joint committee led by the local governor and the president of regional universities to select supported universities through a bottom-up model. A total of 327 universities will receive support under this system.
In contrast, the Glocal university program is a top-down initiative where the Minister of Education directly designates universities that aim to innovate by breaking down barriers both inside and outside the institution, providing up to 100 billion won in support over five years. Designations began in 2023, with a total of 27 universities selected by 2025. The fundamental differences in purpose and authority between the two programs are evident.
The issue arose when the Ministry of Education abolished the Regional Innovation System (RIS) project and forced the Glocal university budget into the RISE program starting in the 2025 fiscal year. A new provision was added to the RISE program's grant conditions stating, 'The amount received by the designated Glocal university must be fully granted.' This effectively turned a significant portion of the 1.6396 trillion won in local government grants into a channel for transferring funds to specific universities designated by the central government.
The National Assembly Budget Office criticized this structure, stating, 'While the RISE program's beneficiaries are selected by local governors, the Glocal universities are designated by the Ministry of Education, making the inclusion of the Glocal university program within RISE structurally inappropriate.' The analysis suggests that centralizing decision-making authority while routing budget distribution through local governments undermines the original intent of 'local-led university innovation' in the RISE program.
In response to the Budget Office's review process, the Ministry of Education explained, 'Glocal universities refer to an innovation model rather than specific institutions, and they are obligated to generate results as models leading regional and university innovation within the RISE framework.' The Ministry also claimed that local governments included Glocal university content in the RISE basic plan, asserting that there is no systematic contradiction.
However, the Ministry's explanation was overturned just one year later. In the 2026 budget proposal, funding for Glocal universities among national universities was once again separated into the 'National University Development Project.' This marks a return to the previous method of direct funding from the Korea Research Foundation (NRF), bypassing local governments, as was done in the 2023 and 2024 fiscal years.
The Ministry of Education acknowledged some of the Budget Office's criticisms. In its response to the settlement analysis, the Ministry stated, 'The Glocal university program is a centrally led initiative where the Ministry directly designates and manages performance, so the local government grant method is not suitable, and we are in discussions to change it to a direct funding model,' effectively accepting the Budget Office's critique.
To rectify the confusion in financial execution, the government has renamed the existing 'RISE' to 'ANCHOR' and established a legal foundation. The amendments to the 'Higher Education Act Enforcement Decree' and the 'Local University Development Act Enforcement Decree' passed in the Cabinet meeting on July 14 are central to this change.
The new Anchor system focuses on overcoming the inherent limitations of the previous RISE program. First, the authority to establish local university support plans has been completely shifted from the Minister of Education to local governors. The establishment of a 'Regional Innovation University Support Committee' in each province and the legal procedures for forming a 'Super-Regional Collaboration Support Committee' for projects crossing provincial boundaries have also been enacted.
Notably, the revised enforcement decree clearly defines a feedback system to prevent the 'blanket budget allocation' controversy that arose under the 2025 RISE framework. The amended decree establishes a cyclical structure leading to 'evaluation-results disclosure-budget differential allocation' for Anchor projects pursued by universities and local governments.
The central government’s share of Glocal university funding (for national universities) has been separated to enhance efficiency, while the Anchor budget allocated to local governments will be strictly distributed under the evaluation and responsibility of local governors.
After the Cabinet meeting, Minister of Education Lee Kyo-jin stated, 'With this amendment to the enforcement decree, we will begin to operate a collaborative system where universities, local governments, and the central government jointly design the future of the region.'
Education finance officials pointed out that behind this legal restructuring lies the reality of a hasty financial design that has partially reverted to the past in just one year. The Budget Office criticized, 'Ultimately, since the project was launched in 2023, the 2025 fiscal year was the only time the entire Glocal university project budget was included within the RISE program, overlooking the structural differences between the two initiatives.'