SOUTH KOREA: Universities' creative accounting exposed

Private and public universities in South Korea have engaged in creative accounting practices resulting in excessive hikes in tuition fees, writes Kim Eun-jung for Yonhap News Agency.

Wrapping up an investigation into 35 randomly chosen universities, including nine public institutions, the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) said the institutions had habitually manipulated their books over the past five years to justify steep rises in tuition expenses.

The BAI estimated that the creative accounting produced a total of Won655.2 billion (US$579.3 million) in inappropriate income for the universities, or Won18.7 billion annually per school in the last five years. The audit came amid growing public calls for universities to slash fees and disclose their financial statements transparently in a bid to cut education fees.
Full report on the Yonhap News Agency site