The tuition fee is certainly one of the greatest concerns for undergraduate students, especially for those who attend private universities. This is a widespread problem in Korea as nonpublic schools dominate a significant portion of universities. Therefore, the government has been assisting college students, especially those who are underprivileged, with college fees through the management of national scholarship policies. This approach, however, was always under controversy as the criteria for determining whether one is underprivileged enough are too vague and impractical. In response, the government came up with revised plans, increasing the subsidy and relaxing the standards of determining the people in need of financial support. Many are keeping an eye on the economic and social impact of the change in the new regulation.
The Change in the National Scholarship
According to the analysis of university information disclosure released by the Ministry of Education (MOE) and the Korean Council for University Education in April 2020, the average tuition fee for one student in 2020 was 6.9 million won. More importantly, the difference between private and public university fees was noticeably large; private university students paid about three million won more per year than public university students. In addition, according to the Korea Educational Development Institute’s (KEDI) 2019 Education Opinion Survey, 33 percent of the respondents cited “reduction of tuition burden” as the top priority policy that the current government should focus on for improved education quality. This means that the nation’s people are financially burdened in terms of educational budget.
On August 24, the government announced the revised version of the 2022 national scholarships guidance. The MOE proposed that a revision be made in terms of educational subsidy statements, which was approved in the fourth Youth Policy Coordination Committee held two days after the announcement. According to The Korea Herald, under the new policy, the subsidy will increase to 3.5 million won for students in both income brackets. A third child in a family qualified for 4.5 million won in support before, but under the new policy, their tuition fees will be fully covered.
In addition, families under the eighth income decile will be provided full support of the college fee starting from their third child. The number of beneficiaries is estimated to be around 140,000. According to Yeonhap News, an official from the MOE explained, “The adjusted guidelines aim to minimize the impact of former unfavorable measures by coupling individual financial status with the amount of subsidy.” In addition, the revised support policy also allows the relaxation of standards for student loans, which are operated with national scholarships. One of the detailed changes is the abolition of the criterion that grants student loans to students who received a “grade C or higher in the previous semester.”
Support Policy: A Double-edged Sword
Many welfare policies, including university tuition support, are subject to conflicting assessments because most people regard them as supplementary than essential. There is rising concern that the government might be spending redundant aid on those who can afford school fees themselves. However, supporters advocate that the new action adequately considers the economic conditions of college students in their respective income decile. Moreover, they believe that full scholarship for the third child and so on will do its job.
According to Professor Lee Byungryang (Department of Public Administration, Kyonggi University), this policy is significant in that it is expected to largely promote the government’s plans and has a broad range of beneficiary groups. Also, other than financial issues, this policy is considered to impose little burden on the government.
On the other hand, the biggest reason why full support policy for the third child and on comes under criticism is that it rules out people who do not pass the means test – a measurement of a household’s income in order to determine if it is eligible for financial assistance from the government. The government policy states that couples with non-monetary properties (such as housing, automobiles, and deposits on top of their regular income) that exceed 9.8 million won every month cannot benefit from this policy. Under this condition, dual-income couples in their 50s with children who are in college cannot receive support from the government. Therefore, it is pointed out that there is a loophole in the policy and leads to reverse discrimination.
According to Kang Minjung, a member of the National Assembly, the MOE has not discussed the issue of reverse discrimination like the aforementioned or ways to expand support for them. In the end, many people say that to prevent reverse discrimination, this policy should not be implemented differently based on the result of the means test. Additionally, Kang proposed, “The government should abolish selective support based on income distribution and expand it to full support as the economic burden of multi-child parenting is very high."
Professor Lee stresses that it is time to evaluate the validity of the policy’s practicality as it has been a decade since the national scholarship policy was first introduced. He explains that “ensuring equal access to education through scholarship not only develops an individual’s ability but also cultivates people of talent.” The purpose of the reevaluation is to judge whether it contributes to these goals. He argues that this is not a task that should be left solely on the government, but is one that the entire society should pay attention to, including university students, the target group of the policy.
Given that the Korean society has a high university enrollment rate, dedicating a large sum of budget on education can be a burden to multi-child families. Therefore, a change in the current subsidy policy is inevitable, and whether the revised version will triumph depends on how the government overcomes the anticipated concerns. Nevertheless, the voices of university students, the primary target for this modification, must also be accepted and reflected upon.