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Gov't eases tuition regulations, but universities say it's still not enough

Published: 15 Dec. 2025, 15:34 Updated: 15 Dec. 2025, 16:04

Students are seen on Hankuk University of Foreign Studies' campus in Dongdaemun District, central Seoul, on Nov. 23. [NEWS1]

Private universities on Sunday welcomed the government’s decision to ease tuition regulations, but said the move alone is not enough to resolve the severe financial distress many schools are facing after years of tuition freezes.

On Friday, the Ministry of Education announced during a policy briefing to President Lee Jae Myung that it would “abolish secondary regulations beyond the legal cap on tuition, in light of the deteriorating financial conditions of private universities and the need to expand investment in education.”

The regulation in question is the so-called Type 2 national scholarship system that limits eligibility only to schools that freeze or cut tuition, now set to be abolished by 2027. However, the freeze on tuition at national universities will remain in place under the Lee administration’s national agenda.

Since 2009, the government has urged universities to freeze tuition. From 2012, the government linked this to the Type 2 national scholarship program.

The Type 2 scholarship is distributed through universities to students, but the eligibility requirement effectively forced institutions to comply.

But as some schools have been dealing with more than 16 years of financial strain, a growing number have chosen to opt out. This year, 136 out of 193 universities nationwide — or 70.5 percent — raised tuition despite incurring penalties.

An empty lecture hall is seen at Korea University's campus in Seongbuk District, central Seoul, on March 31. [YONHAP]

Real tuition at private universities, adjusted for inflation, fell by 21.9 percent — from 8.55 million won ($5,800) in 2011 to 6.68 million won per year in 2024, according to the Korean Council for University Education.

Universities expressed hope that the change will offer some breathing room.

“Everyone says AI capability defines national competitiveness, but universities are in a situation where we can barely pay the electricity bills for GPUs,” said a vice president of a university in Seoul, referring to the power-intensive processors used for training AI.

However, some pointed out that the legal cap on tuition increases is still too low to make a meaningful difference. Under the revised Higher Education Act passed in July, tuition hikes cannot exceed 1.2 times the average consumer price index growth rate over the past three years — a roughly 3.2 percent increase next year.

University students are seen in a lecture hall at a university in Busan on Sept. 1. [YONHAP]

“What we urgently need is to improve educational infrastructure like lab equipment, but a three percent increase might only be enough to fix restrooms or buy projectors,” said Lee Hae-woo, president of Dong-A University, who raised tuition last year despite opposition from the Education Ministry.

Private universities in regional areas that are not included in key government support plans are expected to continue struggling, even with the deregulation.

“The gap between schools that can recruit more students and those that cannot will likely grow,” said Koh Young-sun, president of the Korea Educational Development Institute. “Tuition reform must be accompanied by direct support to universities.”

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY HEO JEONG-WON [[email protected]]