Education Ministry caps tuition hike at 5.64 percent for next year

Members of the University Student Council Network hold a rally against tuition increases in Yongsan District, central Seoul, in May [NEWS1]

Universities in Korea won't be able to hike their tuition by more than 5.64 percent for domestic students next year, the Ministry of Education announced Tuesday.

The 5.64 percent cap for next year is 1.79 percentage points higher than this year's 3.85 percent. The figure is the highest since the Education Ministry started setting hike caps every year in 2011.

The Higher Education Act stipulates that tuition for domestic students can't be raised by more than 1.5 times the average increase in consumer prices for the three previous years. According to Statistics Korea data, consumer prices were up 3.7 percent in 2023, 5.1 percent in 2022 and 2.5 percent in 2021, averaging 3.76 percent.

The Education Ministry urged universities to keep tuition at the same levels and promised financial support.

"Considering challenging financial situations such as high consumer prices and high interest rates, we earnestly request universities freeze tuition," Oh Seok-hwan, vice education minister, said in a statement.

The government will continue offering Type 2 National Scholarship to universities that freeze their tuition, a type of government scholarship introduced in 2012.

While the act does not regulate tuition for international students, some universities have decided to raise it by similar levels, while some have decided to freeze it.

Chung-Ang University's tuition review committee held a meeting on Dec. 19 and presented a plan to hike tuition for international undergraduate and graduate students by 5 percent.

The final decision will be made at the committee's second meeting on Wednesday.

Ajou University decided to raise the tuition for international undergraduate and graduate students by 5.4 percent next year in a meeting on Dec. 12.

The 5.4 percent rise is the same rate that domestic students' tuition will be subject to, although the university mentioned the figure for domestic students can change depending on the announcement by the Education Ministry.

Sungkyunkwan University is one that decided to freeze tuition for international undergraduate and graduate students for next year.

BY LEE TAE-HEE [lee.taehee2@joongang.co.kr]