In countries such as China, Korea, and Japan, declining birthrates have become a major problem. This problem has begun to manifest itself in a real way in China. In 2014, the annual birth rate was about 19 million, but by 2023, it had dropped sharply to less than 10 million. The number of children attending kindergartens and other facilities was 40.92 million as of 2023. This figure is more than 7 million fewer than at its peak. China’s rapid decline in birthrates has had a direct impact on kindergarten management. Kindergartens are being closed one after another due to the decline in the number of children entering kindergarten, which has led to a deterioration in management. If the birth rate does not recover, the phenomenon occurring in kindergartens will spread to elementary and junior high schools.
One country that has experienced this predicament early and is scrambling to find a solution is Korea. In local universities in Korea, the number of faculties and departments with zero applicants has increased sharply. The situation of private universities in Korea’s regions is particularly severe, with more than one-third of them being under capacity. Even if all current high school seniors go on to university, there will still be a shortage of more than 40,000 students to fill the capacity. The Korean government has not been sitting idly by and watching this trend. This government is exerting a strong power that is unthinkable in Japan. Until now, subsidies were provided according to the university’s capacity. This subsidy was stopped and universities were changed to compete with each other to win. This policy allowed unpopular faculties and departments to be reorganized, and over the past 10 years, the capacity was successfully reduced by about 190,000.
The “university restructuring policy” alone was not enough to resolve the undercapacity caused by the declining birthrate. As the undercapacity continues, the government and universities are starting to take new measures. The policy that the government has put forward is the “RISE policy,” which will be fully implemented in 2025. RISE is a policy to transfer the authority of the Ministry of Education to provide financial support to universities to local governments. The strategy currently being pursued by Korean universities to survive seems to be to secure international students. In Korea, international students can be accepted beyond the quota. Students studying abroad at private universities in Korea are more expensive than Korean students. The more international students they can attract, the more revenue they can generate. Local Korean universities are even going to Southeast Asian countries to attract international students. The Korean government is also supporting this trend. The Korean government is creating a trend to attract international students from the high school stage. They are trying to have them blend into the local community early on and accept them as important “human resources” for the community. They hope that while building deep relationships with local residents, they will learn Korean language and culture and become a driving force for the revival of the local area.
