Park Ji-won: "Universities Replacing Classes with Online Lectures Should Reduce Tuition to 'Bangtongdae Level'"

[Asia Economy Reporter Shinwon Yoon] Park Ji-won, the Minsheng Party candidate for Mokpo, proposed that universities that started the semester online to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) should "reduce tuition fees to the level of cyber universities or Korea National Open University, refund the difference, and have the government compensate the universities for the shortfall."

On the 6th, Candidate Park stated, "The average tuition fee for one semester is 2.08 million KRW for national universities and 3.73 million KRW for private universities, which is a considerable amount," and added, "If face-to-face classes are replaced by online lectures, the quality of instruction declines, infringing on students' right to learn."

He continued, "Tuition should be refunded based on cyber universities (average 1.44 million KRW for 18 credits) or Korea National Open University (380,000 KRW) that mainly offer online lectures to reduce the burden on students and parents," and said, "Even if face-to-face classes are replaced by online lectures, fixed costs such as labor and management expenses mostly remain, so the burden of tuition refunds cannot be placed solely on universities; the government must compensate a certain portion."

He added, "The livelihood field is in chaos due to COVID-19, and a crisis greater than the IMF crisis will come," emphasizing, "With the experience and resilience of overcoming the IMF crisis under President Kim Dae-jung, I will ensure the payment of 1 million KRW per person as a COVID-19 allowance."

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