Cooperation by Coercion: Institutionalizing the “Third Mission” of Universities in the South Korean Higher Education System

Abstract

The rise of the knowledge-based economy has led to a global trend pushing universities to be competent in not only teaching and research but also the so-called “third mission.” At the same time, driven by the New Public Management (NPM) regime, recent global university reforms have introduced and employed complex evaluation systems for its governance. Yet, there is relatively a scant interest in how the NPM approach has influenced the ways of institutionalizing the third mission of universities and its consequences. This paper tries to fill this gap with a case study of LINC (Leaders in INdustry-university Cooperation), which is one of the main South Korean university funding programs dedicated to the third mission. This paper examines the evaluation system of LINC and its multi-level operation that constitutes the Korean version of the entrepreneurial university. As a result, this study finds that the evaluation system of LINC has been steering university toward an “industry serving agency,” with persistent approaches of formalization and incentivization. This study presents a reflective interpretation of the direction where South Korean university-industry cooperation policy headed, leaving policy implications not only for South Korea but also for other countries that are adopting a similar policy.