Currently, students are facing many economic hardships due to the rising cost of living. In order to alleviate this pressure students in Korea have demonstrated for a lower tuition fee and student activists were able to make high tuition fees become a national issue.
Last year, there were national protests for the government to come up with a plan to cut college tuition. SNU responded to the concerns of students by stating that the tuition fee for undergraduates will decrease by 5% compared to last year's fee.
Taking into consideration that SNU’s tuition fee has not risen nearly as much as other universities, this is not only a concrete substantial change but also holds a certain significance. Furthermore, because SNU is a national university receiving government funding, the tuition is noticeably lower than that of other Korean universities.
On February 8, the SNU Finance Committee along with the Tuition Review Committee agreed to this percentage-based cut. Among the committee members, two undergraduate student representatives and administration personnel attended the meeting.
Since 2009, SNU’s undergraduate tuition fee has been stable and recently students campaigned to maintain the 2012 tuition fee with minimal changes.
The SNU administration guaranteed that the 5% decrease in tuition will not impact the quality of education that the students receive.
Although the university’s tuition fee-based income will decrease as a result of this decision, the general budget is said to be set to increase by 30%, thus improving the quality of student education.
A student from the College of Social Sciences stated,"When I went to print the bill I noticed the tuition fee had decreased from last year's 2,780,000KRW to 2,481,000KRW. It was a nice surprise as it shows that the school is in a way responding to our concerns. I am hopeful that the SNU administration will continue to respond, little by little."
Written by OH Jung Eun, SNU English Editor, josefinaoh@snu.ac.kr
Reviewed by Eli Park Sorensen, SNU Professor of Liberal Studies, eps7257@snu.ac.kr
Proofread by Brett Johnson, SNU English Editor, morningcalm2@gmail.com