Universities pressed to refund tuition amid protracted pandemic

A student passes by Konkuk University campus in Seoul, Monday. Yonhap

Konkuk University decides to offer partial refunds

By Bahk Eun-ji

Konkuk University's latest decision to offer partial tuition refunds is putting other schools under pressure over whether to follow suit. Many universities have consistently refused to do so, despite growing calls from their students, according to school officials Monday.

Konkuk University said Monday it will offer students a partial tuition refund, becoming the first university to do so, as its students have been demanding compensation or the chance to retake their courses at no further cost. Classes have been disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic.

The school's tuition committee, which includes university officials and student council members, has decided to reduce the tuition fee for the second semester for its 15,000 students. The committee has met 19 times since early April to reach that decision. The decided method dictates the amount of tuition that has to be paid in accordance with the ratio agreed upon by the two sides as indicated on the tuition bill.

"Since it is a special situation due to the COVID-19 outbreak, we decided that it is inevitable for schools to reduce tuition fees in part within available financial resources," an official of Konkuk University said. "School officials and students of the committee are in last-minute negotiations over the reduction rate, and it is expected to be decided sometime within this week."

Konkuk is the first university to reduce the amount of tuition fees since the virus pandemic impacted educational institutes. So far, universities have responded to requests for tuition refunds by organizing additional resources or by offering "special scholarships" secured through fundraising by faculty and students.

Most universities here postponed the start of the spring semester by one or two weeks and even though they resumed classes, many have been replacing on-campus classes with online ones due to the continued COVID-19 outbreak.

However, the comparatively lower quality of online classes led more students to demand tuition refunds, and a network of 27 university student councils held a number of news conferences across the country since March. According to the association, 83.8 percent of respondents said universities should refund part of their school tuition for the delay in opening as compensation for the period they replace offline lectures with online ones, citing its survey of 12,213 members nationwide for five days from Feb. 28.

Universities have claimed that they still have to pay fixed expenses such as labor and facility maintenance although they have stopped providing on-campus lectures. They said they cannot afford to return tuition fees due to financial deterioration such as a decreasing number of international students, expenses for quarantine work on campus, establishment of remote class infrastructure and operation of facilities such as dormitories and restaurants.

But other universities seem to be struggling with the decision to reduce tuition fees.

"Most universities find it difficult to refund tuition fees for the first semester, except for some universities considering returning a certain amount of money to students in the form of special scholarships," an official of a university in Seoul said on condition of anonymity.

"Even though we have provided online classes for the spring semester, universities also spent a lot of money, including quarantine costs caused by the virus outbreak and facility costs for the remote classes. In addition, tuition fees have been frozen for the last 10 years, so the university's finances are not sufficient," he said.

Regarding Konkuk University's tuition refund plan, an official from the Ministry of Education said, "It is a matter for the university to decide on its own."

The official then said the education ministry is aware that there are many objections from universities to refunding tuition fees because they have been financially struggling.

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