[Reporter’s Notebook] Uncomfortable University Tuition Refund

[Asia Economy Reporter Jang Sehee] "Are the people who pay tuition separate from those who receive it?" This is a phrase repeatedly coming from financial authorities. It follows the growing voices in the political sphere calling for government budget support for universities that reduce tuition fees.

Due to the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), academic schedules such as delayed semester openings and online classes have not been conducted normally at each university, and there is strong demand from students for tuition refunds. The main reason is that the quality of classes has declined as offline classes were replaced by online ones.

The problem lies in the government budget support coming from the political sphere. Democratic Party lawmaker Park Chandae said, "The 3rd supplementary budget included 190 billion won for tuition support, but it was cut by the Ministry of Economy and Finance," adding, "Discussions have begun on whether to increase the budget during the supplementary budget process and, if so, to what extent."

If universities did not use their facilities and online classes were inadequate, it is appropriate for the universities that provided educational services to refund part of the tuition to students. If the government compensates a certain portion of the tuition refund amount with taxes, it may violate the principle of appropriateness.

The government operates a national scholarship system supporting about 1.2 million university students with an annual budget of around 4 trillion won. This is more than seven times the 521.8 billion won in 2011 before the national scholarship was introduced. The national scholarship provides differential support based on the applicant household's income and property by income quintile. Based on monthly recognized income, income quintiles 1 to 3 receive 5.2 million won annually, the 4th quintile 3.9 million won, the 5th to 6th quintiles 3.68 million won, the 7th quintile 1.2 million won, and the 8th quintile 675,000 won respectively. In fact, low-income university students who are struggling to make a living are receiving policy support.

As of the 3rd supplementary budget, the national debt is expected to increase by 111.4 trillion won from last year to 840.2 trillion won. There is considerable expectation that demands from the political sphere for government budget support will lead to additional supplementary budgets in the future. However, universities must first make self-help efforts to refund tuition. If concerns about the national treasury are postponed to overcome the unprecedented COVID-19 crisis, the burden will ultimately fall on future generations.

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