Abstract

Purpose: This study examines some successful and failed cases of Korean private universities' profitable business and explores the desirable economic value and direction of their profitable business business operations with a view to shedding light on some clues conducive to their financial health and quality education. Research design, data and methodology: This study reviews news articles, reports and literature to find out Korean universities' financial condition and examines some successful and failed examples of their corporations' profit-making business operations to suggest a direction. Results: Private universities suffer declining enrollments and/or tuition freeze but they lack in making efforts to secure financial health. The reviewed examples of private universities' profit-making business operations suggest both universities and their corporations should first assume the public accountability prior to engaging in diverse business activities. Conclusions: First, to remain financially healthy, university corporations should exert themselves to transform their low-profit-margin lands and buildings into high-profit-margin businesses and to credit the realized income to their school-expense accounts. And, the ultimate purpose of universities' profit-making business operations is to realize a decent income without prejudice to their public accountability for the country and community, while forging a virtuous cycle by investing the income for the betterment of their educational quality and competitiveness.