Universities Aggressively Seeking Donations

By Kang Shin-who

Staff Reporter

Yonsei University and several other top schools sitting on large cash reserves are causing a stir as they are allegedly coercing the parents of freshmen to donate to them.

Universities collect donations mainly from their alumni and private companies, but they have started aggressively collecting money from students’ parents. Collecting this way is not illegal, but donating to schools is still new and a bit alien for most parents who are already suffering from soaring tuition fees.

While some say universities are imposing more of a burden on parents, others say they are in the initial stages of building a donation culture like global schools. Yonsei is one of the most aggressive collectors of donations. The school sent letters with guidelines to parents of all freshmen, and has also called more than 1,000 of them over the past few months asking them to join in a donation campaign.

The school said they started the campaign calling for donations from parents three years ago. ``It’s true we’ve made calls. That’s to raise funds for scholarships and other school projects,'' an official, declining to be named, told The Korea Times. ``We will call more parents next year,'' he added.

However, a parent who received the phone call said, ``I refused to donate. Tuition has already surpassed 10 million won for a year, it’s too much for us to also donate.’’

Yonsei’s students council showed a lukewarm reaction to the policy. ``If it’s for lowering tuition fees and making a better education environment, it’s okay. But we are worried our school might take an improper approach to collecting money,’’ said Cho Eui-sun, vice president of the council.

Seoul National University (SNU) also sent letters to freshmen's parents for the first time. `

`While national universities overseas such as Peking University, the University of Tokyo and the National University of Singapore get more than 50 percent of their financing from the government, SNU gets only 25 percent,'' said Hwang Shin-hye, an official at the fund raising department of the school. ``However, most Koreans request our school to be more globally competitive. In this situation, raising donations is the only way.''

``As long as the method of collecting money is not offensive, I am okay with our university’s plan regarding donations,'' said Kim Hyun-joo, an SNU junior student.

kswho@koreatimes.co.kr