Democratic Party Moves Toward Indirect Support for Universities Returning Tuition Fees

[Asia Economy Reporter Won Dara] The Democratic Party of Korea is reportedly adopting an indirect support policy instead of direct support in response to demands for tuition refunds amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead of providing government subsidies directly to university students, the government plans to support schools that refund tuition fees through indirect means.

On the 22nd, a Democratic Party official stated, "There is a consensus to provide indirect support to schools that come up with self-help measures instead of directly refunding tuition fees to university students." Earlier, the Ministry of Economy and Finance rejected the Ministry of Education's request to allocate 19.51 billion won in the third supplementary budget for tuition refunds. The Blue House has also expressed reluctance to provide direct cash support.

The Democratic Party is considering negotiating with the Ministry of Economy and Finance to include an indirect support budget in the third supplementary budget. The scale and method of support are still under discussion. It is known that the government plans to provide subsidies to universities that refund tuition fees to students.

However, opposition parties continue to insist on direct support. The United Future Party is reviewing plans to include a budget for university tuition refunds in the supplementary budget to support low-income students. The Justice Party proposes providing 850,000 won to students at national and public universities and 1,120,000 won to students at private universities. The Open Democratic Party has also stated that 200,000 won per university student should be supported through the supplementary budget.

Meanwhile, the National Assembly's Education Committee is at a standstill due to difficulties in negotiating the parliamentary organization. Although the Democratic Party handed over the Education Committee chairmanship to the United Future Party, the latter is opposing the Democratic Party's unilateral election of six standing committee chairpersons and is not cooperating with either the election of the chairperson or the committee composition. An Education Committee official said, "There are currently no discussions on tuition-related matters at the Education Committee level."

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