What It Will Take for ‘10 Seouls’ to Truly Transform Regional Industry

South Korea’s “10 Seouls” university initiative risks becoming a simplistic exercise in regional allocation unless it is tied to the industries, companies and research capabilities that already exist in each area, argues Lee Si-cheol, a professor at Kyungpook National University.

The government selected Pusan National University, Chonnam National University and Chungnam National University on Sept. 1 for the first year of the flagship national university package support program. Eight ministries are involved in the effort, which aims to connect university education and research with corporate technology needs and regional industrial foundations.

Lee questions how the universities were chosen. The selection criteria, as well as the role and process of the evaluation, remained unclear despite the extensive work and internal debate that universities invested in their proposals. A credible assessment, he argues, should examine each university’s education and research capabilities, its willingness to innovate, and whether it can form working partnerships with local governments, companies and research institutes.

The choice of three universities also matched concerns that one institution would be selected from each of the Chungcheong, Honam and Yeongnam regions. Lee says treating the Daegu-Gyeongbuk and Busan-Ulsan-Gyeongnam areas as single regional blocs ignores their separate populations, universities and industrial structures. Existing flows of talent, research and industry should matter more than political or emotional boundaries, he writes.

He also questions whether the first-year program needed to be limited to three universities. Because the call for proposals came later than expected, universities may struggle to spend the 2026 budget properly. A broader group of universities could have received realistic start-up funding, followed by phased evaluations and differentiated support.

Lee points to semiconductor companies and research assets in Gumi, secondary batteries in Pohang, and a national robot test field in Daegu as examples of regional strengths. The program should support semiconductors, biotechnology, mobility or robotics where those ecosystems already exist, he says, rather than impose one national model.

The goal, in his view, should not be to make Pusan, Chonnam or Chungnam resemble Seoul National University. It should be to build universities that Seoul does not have, linking laboratories to nearby products and services, companies to education, and students to real industrial problems and local jobs. Regional national universities should serve as platforms open to private and junior colleges, not as the top of a local hierarchy.

“

Regional investment and balanced development are the only path for Korea to survive.