Ministry of Education Accepting Applications for Disabled Student Support Center Operation Support Project Until Next Month 8

Support for Educational Support Personnel, Assistive Devices, and Remote Programs

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Jinju] The Ministry of Education and the National Institute for Lifelong Education announced on the 18th that they will accept applications for the second semester support project for the operation of university disability student support centers until the 8th of next month.

Since 2005, the Ministry of Education has been providing funding to university disability student support centers so that disabled university and graduate students can smoothly receive higher education through educational support personnel, assistive devices, remote programs, and more.

As of last year, disability student support centers are operating at 328 out of 411 universities and colleges nationwide (79.8%). They are also operating at 160 universities where installation is mandatory due to having 10 or more disabled students.

The Ministry of Education supports the labor costs of general educational support personnel who assist with note-taking, communication, mobility, and convenience, as well as professional educational support personnel such as sign language interpreters, stenographers, and braille transcribers. It also supports costs for producing subtitles and audio descriptions, and operating remote programs such as real-time transcription.

The total support budget for the second semester is 900 million KRW. The government subsidizes up to 80% of the standard unit cost for labor costs of educational support personnel and remote program operation costs, and the remaining amount must be invested by the university.

The standard unit costs are as follows: general educational support personnel labor cost is 11,000 KRW per hour, professional educational support personnel labor cost is 32,000 KRW per hour (3,344,000 KRW per month), and remote program operation costs are capped at 11 million KRW per subject.

Universities wishing to participate in the project must assess the demand of disabled students currently enrolled, submit an application form via official document from August 22 to September 8, and register the application materials in the project management system.