SNU Refrains from Raising Its Tuition Fees Three Years in a Row

University students throughout Korea have been stressed by ever-rising tuition fees these past few years. At the beginning of 2010, several major universities raised their tuition fees by as much as 4.8 percent compared to the previous year. Students have signed petitions and demonstrated against this nationwide trend; however the universities which raised their tuition fees argue it is only necessary in view of the inflation rate.

Students at SNU have also been paying close attention to the recent heated debate concerning the incorporation of the university -- that is, whether SNU should be run like a private school -- in which the oppositionists argued higher tuition rates were to be expected. The decision concerning SNU’s incorporation is still to be made, but regardless, it seems SNU students will not need to worry about higher tuition rates.

On December 26, Seoul National University announced that it “will not be raising tuition rates for the year 2011 in order to help stabilize the national inflation rate and to alleviate the burden on students who are not so well-off.” This tuition fee freeze is the third in a row, and SNU’s decision not to raise its tuition is expected to influence the decision-making of other academic institutions concerning their own tuition rates.

The current tuition fee for undergraduate students at SNU is roughly 5,800,000 KRW per year on average. The inflation rate for South Korea in the year 2010 was reported to be 3.3 percent in November. 

Jan. 3, 2011 
BoYoung Lee, SNU English Editor
bylee0708@gmail.com