An Exploratory Empirical Analysis of the Effects of the Special Account for Higher and Lifelong Education Support on University Autonomous Innovation Performance

Abstract

This study empirically examines the effects of the Special Account for Higher and Lifelong Education Support, introduced in 2023, on the autonomous innovation performance of Korean universities. A university-level panel dataset covering ten years (2015–2024) for four-year universities and junior colleges was constructed, and fixed-effects and random-effects panel regression analyses were conducted to examine the influence of central and local government higher education financial support on educational foundation indicators, student-centered educational indicators, and industry-academia and community engagement indicators. The results show that central government financial support exerts a statistically significant positive (+) effect on core performance indicators, including full-time faculty securement rate, education cost return rate, scholarship per enrolled student, employment rate, and entrepreneurship education. In particular, the interaction effects associated with the Special Account were significantly positive in scholarship per enrolled student, education cost return rate of junior colleges, and entrepreneurship courses and participants at four-year universities, suggesting that the same magnitude of financial support generates amplified performance improvements under the Special Account regime. However, the outcomes were heterogeneous across university characteristics, with national/public, metropolitan, and small- to medium-sized universities exhibiting relatively larger improvements. These findings provide empirical justification for the stable operation and permanent financing of the Special Account, extended until 2030, and confirm the need to move beyond uniform allocation toward a refined distribution design reflecting the heterogeneous conditions of universities.