‘Study-Now-Pay-Later’ Student Loans Debut

By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter

University and college tuition here has more than doubled over the past 10 years, the government's statistics agency said Thursday.

According to Statistics Korea, the tuitions of state-run universities increased 116 percent from 1999, while those for private four-year universities and two-year colleges jumped 81 percent and 90 percent, respectively, during the same period.

Meanwhile, a state-funded school loan program, aimed at easing the financial burden, has cleared the National Assembly. Students can apply for the loans from today.

The consumer price index has increased 36 percent over the past decade, imposing an even heavier financial burden on parents and students seeking higher education. The tuitions of graduate schools also surged 114 percent for private institutes.

The steep rise began when the government gave the autonomy to raise tuition to private universities in 1989 and to state-run universities in 2003.

"Colleges had spent more money to form better academic environments as an effort to draw excellent students," said a government spokesman. "This trend has caused tuition hikes. But the problem is that colleges have failed to diversify their sources of income to finance it."

Facing growing complaints from parents and students, many universities last year started to freeze tuition. This year as well, some of them, including Ewha Womans University and Sejong University, have already announced freezes.

However, universities that didn't raise tuition last year are hesitant to do so again as it is a burden for them to freeze fees for two consecutive years.

In the meantime, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology announced Thursday that it will receive applicants for the "study-now-pay-later" program from today through March 31. The program provides students with long-term state education loans and allows them to pay them back after graduating from college and landing a job.

The government plans to enforce a bill enabling the program from this spring. It was unsure whether the bill would be passed at the National Assembly as lawmakers were divided over imposing a legal ceiling on college tuition increases.

However, they agreed to set the ceiling Wednesday night.

The ministry officials said that they are in discussions with the Korean Council for University Education over the extension of their tuition payment deadlines so that freshmen can enjoy the benefits of the program from the spring semester of 2010.

President Lee Myung-bak also plans to meet the heads of universities across the nation tomorrow to ask them to refrain from raising tuition this year considering the continuing financial difficulties.

kswho@koreatimes.co.kr