Gov’t, GNP to consult on tuition cut

By Kim Se-jeong

The ruling Grand National Party’s floor leader Hwang Woo-yea and Education Minister Lee Joo-ho agreed to hammer out a tangible way to reduce college tuition in a rare meeting held in Seoul Wednesday.

“We have agreed upon a method to lift the economic burden arising from high tuition,” Hwang said after the meeting.

As a result, the party and the government are expected to hold a preliminary public hearing where students, lawmakers, university representatives and parents will be invited for an open discussion.

Hwang and other reformist GNP members are also pushing to create a consensus among lawmakers by the end of June, the deadline for the cut to be implemented in the budget allocation for the 2012 fiscal year.

The party also pledged to increase the size of public scholarships initially to cover tuition for half of the students from least-privileged families.

The meeting came after the reformist leader Hwang made a statement earlier this week, saying that college tuition needs to be halved.

“It has to be cut by at least half,” he was quoted as saying Sunday during a meeting with journalists.

His statement received a cold shoulder from Cheong Wa Dae, which dismissed it saying it was too radical and lacked adequate consultation with the presidential office.

The discussion on Wednesday took place amid rising public outcry over rapidly rising college tuition.

A group of college students’ parents appeared before the government complex on Tuesday, calling for a tuition cut.

According to Bank of Korea and Statistics Korea, fees for universities and graduate schools have risen 26.3 percent since 2005.

One possible remedy is a bigger budget allocation for higher education, which remains at just 5 trillion won in 2011.

The total education budget is approximately 41 trillion won.

The drive to cut fees is a renewed effort by the administration. During the presidential campaign in 2007, the then-candidate Lee Myung-bak pledged to reduce the cost of higher education. After taking office in 2008, the President proposed getting education first and paying for it later which fell through.

Under the Roh Moo-hyun administration, the issue was addressed both by the government and the ruling party, but efforts failed to bear fruit.