"Allow Tuition Increase," Universities Demand; Ministry of Education Says "Not the Right Time Yet"

At the Private University Presidents Association New Year's Ceremony, Vice Minister Park Baek-beom Says "Considering Easing Conditions for National Scholarship Support"

Kim In-cheol, president of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies and chairman of the Korean Council of Private University Presidents (KCPUP) (right in the photo), is applauding at the KCPUP 2020 New Year's Greeting Ceremony and the 1st Executive Committee Meeting held on the 7th at the Plaza Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] The Ministry of Education has rejected the requests from private universities to allow tuition fee increases, stating that "the time is not right yet."

The Korea Council of Private University Presidents (KCPUP) held a New Year's greeting ceremony and the first executive meeting of the year on the morning of the 7th at The Plaza Hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul, where they revisited the demand for tuition fee increases that was jointly resolved at the regular general meeting last November.

Officials from the Ministry of Education, including Vice Minister Park Baek-beom and representatives from the University Finance and Scholarship Division, also attended the closed-door event.

At the meeting, the KCPUP requested the Ministry of Education to lift the policy sanctions currently in place that encourage universities to freeze or reduce tuition fees.

Under the current Higher Education Act, universities are allowed to raise tuition fees up to 1.5 times the average consumer price inflation rate over the past three years. However, the Ministry of Education has been preventing universities from increasing tuition by requiring them to freeze or reduce fees in order to receive support from the Type II National Scholarship (a scholarship selected by universities based on their own criteria).

In response, Vice Minister Park emphasized, "It is not yet the time to raise tuition fees," adding, "The government is making efforts to expand higher education funding, with this year's higher education budget increasing by about 800 billion KRW compared to the previous year."

However, he hinted at a gradual relaxation of the on-campus scholarship requirements for participation in the Type II National Scholarship program. Vice Minister Park promised, "We will also consider providing incentives, such as allocating more funds to universities with higher on-campus scholarship ratios when distributing the Type II National Scholarship."

Currently, universities must maintain or increase the scale of on-campus scholarships to participate in the Type II National Scholarship program. Universities have demanded a relaxation of this condition, arguing that even those with on-campus scholarship ratios higher than the national private university average (19.5%) cannot reduce their on-campus scholarships due to this regulation.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.