State-directed evaluative coordination: The transformation of university governance in South Korea

Since the late 1990s, a series of higher education reforms in South Korea—including BK21, NURI, LINC, RISE, and the Glocal University 30 Project—have aimed to enhance university competitiveness while promoting institutional autonomy and social responsibility. Despite these decentralization-oriented reforms, the Korean government has continued to exercise strong steering capacity through fiscal incentives and performance-based evaluation systems. Drawing on Clark's (1983) coordination triangle, this study analyzes how the balance among state authority, market competition, and academic autonomy has evolved in Korean higher education from 1999 to 2024. The study employs qualitative policy document analysis within a historical-institutional framework, drawing on official Ministry of Education documents, KEDI/KESS statistical reports, and peer-reviewed scholarship. The findings show that Korean higher education governance has shifted from direct bureaucratic control toward an evaluative regulatory regime in which universities are steered through performance indicators, funding competitions, and accountability frameworks. Recent initiatives such as RISE and the Glocal University 30 Project illustrate a pattern of managed decentralization, where regional actors gain administrative responsibilities while strategic oversight remains centralized. To conceptualize this governance transformation, the study introduces the notion of State-Directed Evaluative Coordination (SDEC), highlighting how developmental states adapt global accountability norms while maintaining strategic state coordination in higher education systems.