Average Tuition Fee for 4-Year Universities: 6.726 Million KRW (Comprehensive)

Medical and Engineering Quotas Increased by 0.28%

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[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunju Lee] This year, students attending four-year universities pay an average of 6,726,600 KRW for one year’s tuition. This amount represents a 0.28% increase compared to the previous year. Although most universities froze or reduced tuition fees, the average rose slightly due to an increase in admissions quotas for the expensive medical and engineering fields.

The Ministry of Education announced on the 29th the results of the April university information disclosure analysis, which analyzed academic information from 196 four-year general and education universities. The average tuition for private four-year universities this year was 7,479,800 KRW, while national and public universities averaged 4,182,700 KRW.

By field, medicine was the most expensive 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. Universities in the Seoul metropolitan area charged 7,601,100 KRW on average, while those outside the metropolitan area charged 6,187,700 KRW.

Following the trend of abolishing entrance fees, the average entrance fee paid per student significantly decreased. This year it was 276,200 KRW, down 27.6% from the previous 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.

There had been expectations that the implementation of the 'Lecturer Act' would greatly reduce small-sized lectures, but this has not been the case. The proportion of small classes with 20 or fewer students in the first semester of this year was 36.8%, only a 0.9 percentage point increase from the first semester of last year. This is interpreted as universities having already consolidated courses or restructured lecturers before the Lecturer Act was enforced.

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