This article attempts to compare the governing bodies of the national(state) universities in the USA, UK, France, Germany, and Japan on the basis of four categories. The first category is the legal status: is a governing body an independent corporation or a state\'s agency? The second is the leading group of a governing body: is a governing body controlled by laymen or by
internal constituencies of staff, professors, and students in an institution? The third is the influence of professors and students: how much influence do professors or students have on the decision making process of a governing body? The fourth is the legal character of a governing body: is a governing body legally real or fictitious?
The governing bodies of state universities in the USA are independent from state governments and controlled by laymen. The ownership and controlling power of the universities are outside the institutions, not in the hands of the internal members of professors and students in the USA. Also the legal power to control an university belongs not to the institution but to the lay
board.
In contrast, the governing system of a national university in Korea runs to the extreme opposite side of American state universities in terms of the above four categories. In other words, national universities in Korea are controlled directly by the Ministry of Education, and almost all of the presidents are elected by the internal constituencies of professors in the institutions. There is no legal governing body independent from the government. The governing
bodies of national universities in UK, France, Germany, Japan are located somewhere on the continuum between those of Korean national universities and those of American state universities.
Decentralization, self-control, financial autonomy, and effective coping with national and social needs become reform agenda for Korean national universities. The most urgent task for the institutions will be to make them free from both the control of government and internal constituency. The most effective alternative to achieve this task will be to constitute a laymen governing board as a legal entity and to give it the power to control a national university.