By Kim Rahn
Private colleges may reduce tuition by 10 to 15 percent on the precondition of receiving financial support from the government.
The head of the Korean Council for Presidents of Private Universities said Sunday that members were considering lowering tuition if the government pays for some scholarships.
His remark comes amid growing calls from students and civic groups for cuts in university fees and an intensive government audit of colleges’ financial management.
“According to the law on education, private universities are supposed to spend 10 percent of tuition for scholarships and some schools currently pay 15 percent. If the government financially supports the scholarships, schools may be able to lower tuition by those amounts. We talked about this with the Grand National Party (GNP) members earlier this month,” said the council head Park Chul, who is also president of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, in an interview with Yonhap News Agency.
He added the council will collect members’ opinions and submit the final offer to the GNP soon.
“But all of us think halving tuition is impossible unless the government makes up for reduced income. The solution should be made step by step,” Park said.
The council chief also urged the government to increase support for private universities, saying Korea’s budget for higher education as a proportion of gross domestic product is about half that of the OECD average.
Regarding criticism of colleges for assigning only a very small part of hundreds of billions of won in reserve funds to scholarships, Park said the amount of such funds varies from school to school and the money was spent for specific projects such as building new facilities.
On the planned audit by the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI), the Korean Council for University Education said the council will soon express its regret.
“We have made efforts to raise international competitiveness and achieved success in many parts. With the inspection, the government treats us as if we are corrupt,” said Hallym University President Lee Young-sun who leads the council’s task force on tuition issues.
The BAI said Friday it will launch a full-scale inspection on both national and private universities across the nation next month, advancing a scheduled audit in November.
Some 200 auditors, or more than one third of BAI’s total inspectors ― the largest number ever for a single audit ― will inspect financial conditions and expenditure at colleges, which have been criticized for reckless management.
The auditors will also look into how colleges set tuition ― an unusual move because this was not subject to a regular inspection, as government interference was against the principle guaranteeing private colleges’ autonomy.
“We’ll make the audit jointly with the education ministry, along with private experts. Colleges with poor management will face sanctions according to the law, while those of good management can get incentives,” BAI Secretary General Chung Chang-young said.
He said the audit will be submitted to the government and the National Assembly which will then devise measures for high tuition and the restructuring of poorly managed schools.