On September 8, a press conference condemning universities’ collection of admission fees was held at the Main Gate of Korea University (KU). Many representatives of the KU Student Association (KUSA), KU Graduate School Student Association, Head Quarters of People’s Half Price Tuition Fee Campaign, Jeongeui Political Party Youth Student’s Committee, Youth Participation Solidarity, and Cheongnyunhada, all participated in the event.

 

Admission fees, not tuition, are literally a certain amount of money that freshmen of universities must pay. The collection of this money has always been in the spotlight, including the start of 2016, when the 48th KUSA and KU Tuition Special Committee (KUTSC) protested against unreasonably high admission fees. A statistical result showed that KU required the highest price, among all other schools, of admission fees (1,030,000 won).

 

What was more problematic was that when the KUSA Star:zari, inquired on whereabouts all this money was used, KU acted in a rather uncooperative way—it refused to show a transparent trajectory on exactly where the collected fees were used. Time has elapsed since the students’ fight against admission fees has started; however the problem still remains. Thus, to solve this problem, the youth, university students, parents, and the civil society have created a collaborative action headquarters.

 

The campaign team once again consolidated its stance against the school’s collection of admission fees. “Admission fees are problematic to any and every generation,” the network underscored that the problem of admission fees is not only relevant to freshmen, but everyone. They then moved on to announce their further plans for their collaborative activity against admission fees. Much more is to be expected from this network, which plans to hold several more press conferences, open debates, and campaigns in the future.