Korean universities poised to abandon 14-year tuition fee freeze

South Korean universities have begun introducing tuition fee hikes – in what could be the beginning of a sector-wide pivot to abandon a government policy in place for 14 years.

Last month, Dong-A University in Busan became the first to break ranks, increasing its undergraduate fees by almost 4 per cent, Korean media reported. Six out of 11 education universities soon followed suit, raising fees by roughly 4 per cent.

According to media reports, Korea’s education minister Lee Ju-ho expressed regret at their decisions and urged any other institutions mulling hikes to reconsider.

But the horse may already have bolted, said Jun Yoo, a professor in the department of Korean language and literature at Yonsei University.

“I would say the schools on the fringes or not getting enough international students are certainly compelled to increase tuition as well as some of the top 10 schools,” he said, noting that inevitably, “most” Korean institutions would need to raise their fees to stay afloat.

University leaders appear to agree. In a recent survey of presidents of four-year universities at a meeting of the Korean Council for University Education (KCUE), nearly 40 per cent of them – 45 out of 114 respondents – said they planned to raise fees next year.

The writing has been on the wall for a while, with some universities reporting deficits for years. In 2022, a number of institutions hiked international student fees in an attempt to boost their finances – something that overseas students said has left them struggling.

Yet, for more than a decade, Korean universities have kept their domestic fees flat, in line with a government policy preventing them seeking subsidies if they broke the freeze. But the incentive may no longer be enough.

“Raising tuition is more logical than trying to get government subsidies, [which is] not a very profitable scheme,” noted Professor Yoo.

A perfect storm of problems faces Korean universities, he said, including ongoing population decline, the pressure to hire top scholars and upgrade facilities, and geopolitical tension causing Seoul to issue fewer visas to China – Korea’s largest source of overseas students.

Unlike in the West, Korean universities lack endowments that could help them weather leaner times, he pointed out. Anti-nepotism laws prevent donors giving money to their alma mater, as is common in the US.

For dozens of institutions, the situation has become dire.

“I agree with the university presidents who met recently that more than 40 universities will go under in the next five to 10 years,” said Professor Yoo.

While Korean law still prevents universities demanding massive fee hikes – by law, tuition increases cannot be more than one-and-a-half times the average increase in consumer prices during the three preceding years – recent examples indicate that institutions will raise fees as much as they can.

This year, the ceiling rose from a maximum 1.65 per cent fee increase to 4.05 per cent, mirroring a rise in consumer prices.

Times Higher Education asked KCUE whether the organisation believed it was time to abandon the freeze policy altogether. A spokesperson for the organisation did not respond directly, but noted it was a “sensitive” issue.

pola.lem@timeshighereducation.com