Following two months of negotiations between the Korea University (KU) Office of Planning and Budget and the student-established Tuition Fee Refund Task Force (TF), KU announced their final plan to compensate for the limitations implicated by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Although the Tuition Fee Refund TF stood firm on their demands for a partial tuition fee refund, KU continued to express that refunds would not be possible. Instead, KU claimed that the focus of this final comprehensive plan would be on ensuring the stability of education for the post-corona semesters. The two parties established the “KU Post-Corona Comprehensive Plan for Education Stabilization,” which consists of a variety of policies designed to support students in these troubling times—including limited scholarships, rental programs for electronic devices, an expansion of KU’s Zoom license, cost aid for student vaccinations, and coupons for on-campus stores.

According to the Emergency Steering Committee, the policies have been decided in order to protect students’ rights to a high quality of education, even amidst a global pandemic. However, the student establishment also expressed disappointment in the fact that KU continued to disagree on the demand for a partial tuition fee refund for all students—a sentiment shared by the students of KU.