This paper is a review of a 13-year-old policy for university reform in Korea, the Brain Korea 21 Program, based on current theoretical frameworks. Current theoretical frameworks are classified into three groups: micro and macro perspectives on universities and discussion on world-class universities. The overall purpose of BK21 is to bring up high-level scholarship through manpower and achieve several targets of university reform. The program can be evaluated as a success in terms of following a research university model but not the entrepreneurial university model. However, the fact that a 13-year old policy developed under a research university model had features of the entrepreneurial university shows the direction of change that the research university is currently undergoing.