52 Universities Fail Financial Support... Mention of 'Tuition Autonomy' Card

52 out of 233 Universities Failed, 36% of Metropolitan Area Universities
Daegyo협 "Considering Autonomy in Tuition Fee Setting"
Failed Schools Fear Stigma Ahead of Early Admission
Selected Schools Also Face Inevitable Enrollment Cuts in Second Half

Students preparing for final exams at a university in Seoul. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

The aftermath of the ‘2021 University Basic Competency Diagnosis’ announced a month before the early admission period is intense. As 52 universities, including Sungkonghoe University, Sungshin Women’s University, and Inha University, were collectively excluded from financial support, voices demanding the ‘autonomy to set tuition fees’ are emerging.

On the 18th, the Korea Council for University Education stated, "University tuition fees have been frozen for the past 13 years under the pretext of half-price tuition, and efforts to rationalize tuition fees have been disparaged," adding, "We cannot help but consider exercising the autonomy to set tuition fees."

The president of a private university in a provincial area, University A, said, "With tuition fees frozen for 13 years, universities have regarded government financial support as compensation for losses. Universities excluded from financial support are at a loss as to where to receive compensation," expressing concern that "If tuition fees remain frozen, revenue-generating projects are difficult, and if enrollment quotas are reduced, university finances will worsen." He particularly lamented, "The evaluation results are a matter of utmost interest to prospective students and serve as a criterion for judging universities during early admissions, inevitably affecting universities that were excluded."

Universities have argued that considering the crisis situation of frozen tuition fees and COVID-19, the number of excluded universities should be minimized and higher education finances increased. Mentioning the card of autonomy in tuition fee setting is also a warning to the Ministry of Economy and Finance. A representative from the Korea Council for University Education explained, "Universities that were excluded in the relative evaluation were not involved in serious corruption, and requests to minimize exclusions were not reflected at all," adding, "Tuition fee issues have been politically charged, so we have refrained from mentioning them, but since more universities than expected were excluded from financial support projects, we cannot ignore this aspect."

Universities selected for financial support must also autonomously reduce enrollment quotas starting in the second half of the year. The Ministry of Education plans to check the maintenance enrollment rate (the rate of new and continuing students that must be maintained to receive financial support) in the second half of next year, recommend quota reductions based on under-enrollment, and suspend financial support if not complied with. In May, the Ministry announced the ‘Systematic University Management and Innovation Support Plan,’ aiming to reduce enrollment quotas by 30-50% of universities in each region. This is based on the judgment that if the enrollment scale is maintained this year despite the declining school-age population, there could be a shortage of more than 100,000 entrants by 2024.

A president of a private university said, "Most struggling universities are small provincial universities, and even if they are eliminated, it is not just a university issue but also linked to regional extinction, so it is undesirable from the perspective of balanced regional development," adding, "We need to shift to a system that induces and fosters universities to specialize by leveraging their strengths."

According to the ‘2021 University Basic Competency Diagnosis’ results released the day before by the Ministry of Education and the Korea Educational Development Institute, 233 out of 285 universities were selected, and 52 were excluded. Among the excluded universities, 19 (36.5%) were metropolitan area universities including Sungkonghoe University, Sungshin Women’s University, Suwon University, Inha University, Yongin University, Pyeongtaek University, and Hansei University. Except for Gunsan University, all are private universities. Universities facing difficulties in recruiting new students due to the declining school-age population are concerned that the evaluation results may impact the upcoming early admission period next month.

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