Average Tuition Fee at 4-Year Private Universities is 7.48 Million KRW... No Controversy Over 'Kangsa Law' Amendment

University Tuition Fees Slightly Rise with Increased Admission Quotas in Medical and Engineering Fields
Medical Tuition Highest at 9,755,700 Won

Number of Classes Taught by 'Lecturers' Not Reduced Since Instructor Law Implementation
Still Account for 20% of Classes as Before Revision

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunju Lee] Students attending four-year private universities pay an average annual tuition fee of 7,479,800 KRW.

On the 28th, the Ministry of Education announced the results of the April university information disclosure analysis, covering the status of a total of 416 universities.

The average tuition fee per student was 6,726,600 KRW, an increase of 19,300 KRW compared to the previous year. Tuition fees were mostly frozen or reduced due to an increase in admissions quotas for medical and engineering fields.

By field, the average tuition fees were highest in Medicine at 9,755,700 KRW, followed by Arts and Physical Education at 7,742,100 KRW, Engineering at 7,204,200 KRW, Natural Sciences at 6,793,100 KRW, and Humanities and Social Sciences at 5,928,400 KRW.

National and public universities charged 4,182,700 KRW, universities in the metropolitan area charged 7,601,100 KRW, and universities outside the metropolitan area charged 6,187,700 KRW.

Even after the implementation of the 'Lecturer Act,' classes taught by 'lecturers' contracted on a yearly basis have not significantly decreased.

Among non-full-time faculty, lecturers accounted for the highest proportion. After the revision of the Higher Education Act (Article 14-2) in August last year, the proportion of classes taught by newly appointed lecturers was 20.3%. It appears that most classes previously taught by 'part-time lecturers' were taken over by lecturers. Other faculty types included adjunct professors at 5.2%, invited professors at 4.2%, and other faculty at 3.5%. Full-time faculty taught 66.7% of the credits, an increase of 0.1 percentage points from the previous year.

By establishment type, the proportion of classes taught by full-time faculty at private universities was 67.8%, 4.6 percentage points higher than at national and public universities. By location, metropolitan area universities (62.1%) had a lower proportion of full-time faculty teaching than non-metropolitan universities (69.6%).

The proportion of small classes with 20 or fewer students in the first semester of this year was 36.8%, up 0.9 percentage points from the first semester of last year.

Forty national and public universities abolished entrance fees in 2018, and private universities plan to phase out entrance fees by the 2022 academic year.

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