Ministry of Education to Announce University Support Plans for 100 Billion KRW from 3rd Supplementary Budget by End of This Month

4-Year Universities 76 Billion, Junior Colleges 24 Billion

Ministry of Education: "Tuition Refunds and Cash Support Not Allowed"
Alleviating Financial Difficulties of Universities

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunju Lee] The Ministry of Education will announce by the end of this month how it plans to use the 100 billion KRW budget allocated for 'Emergency Support for University Non-Face-to-Face Education' included in the 3rd supplementary budget.

At a regular briefing on the 6th, a Ministry of Education official stated, "The government's policy of not providing cash support in response to university students' demands for tuition refunds remains unchanged," adding, "This budget is urgently provided to alleviate financial difficulties caused by the COVID-19 situation and to improve the quality of university education."

The University Innovation Support Project is a support program that can be used for six categories to enhance universities' innovation capabilities: personnel expenses related to research and development (R&D), scholarships, development and operation costs for education and research programs, improvement costs for education and research environments, purchase and operation costs for laboratory and practical training equipment, and other project operating expenses. Recently, the Ministry of Education restructured the execution standards to a negative system, increasing universities' autonomy in budget execution.

The 3rd supplementary budget includes an additional 76 billion KRW for the University Innovation Support Project and 24 billion KRW for the Junior College Innovation Support Project. Universities can receive support in four areas: expansion of online classes, improvement of educational environments, purchase of equipment, and quarantine measures. However, it is expected that once this budget is supported, each university will be able to secure resources to refund tuition fees to students.

This budget is allocated separately from the existing University Innovation Support Project. The Ministry of Education has already decided to support approximately 800 billion KRW for the University Innovation Support Project. The official added, "Even universities included in the existing categories should not be excluded from this support," emphasizing, "This is to support universities in flexibly responding to new technologies amid rapidly changing educational environments."

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