Tuition Hikes Should Be Left to Universities

Financial difficulties at universities are worsening and educational competitiveness is retreating due to regulations by the Ministry of Education, which controls tuition. The time has come to lift regulations on university tuition and allow universities to set tuition autonomously.

It is wrong for the government to hold control over university tuition. University tuition is the price paid for educational services. There is no reason for the government to determine it. Regulating tuition under the pretext of social controversy over tuition is a populist idea.

The Ministry of Education is controlling tuition by using state scholarship support as a weapon. If tuition is raised even slightly, it cuts off support. Educational administration, which should be fair, transparent, and operated according to proper procedures, has degenerated into tuition control through manipulation.

Under current law, universities may raise tuition by up to 1.5 times the average consumer price inflation rate over the most recent three years. Yet the Ministry of Education itself is undermining this legal provision and using expedients to influence tuition decisions.

When university revenue declines, it becomes a factor that lowers the quality of education. This is also a loss for students, as it reduces the academic ability of those completing university coursework and hampers their ability to generate income after entering society. In this process, it also becomes a burden on businesses that are unable to secure high-quality labor.

Some students and parents who pay less tuition may welcome the reduced immediate burden. But this is a selfish way of thinking—gaining by paying less than the value of the educational services one receives.

Nothing in this world is free. The loss caused by the resulting decline in a school’s competitiveness is passed on to the school community and to younger students. In the long run, that harm comes back to everyone who graduates from the school and also increases social burdens.

If universities’ financial difficulties become severe, the Ministry of Education must subsidize university finances through the Special Account for Higher Education. It is only natural that the Ministry of Education should compensate for losses caused by its controls. But all such resources come from the tax burden borne by the public. In other words, a substantial part of the benefit gained from paying lower tuition is simply taken from the pockets of other citizens.

Education is something in which everyone invests for themselves. It is not desirable to invest in oneself while trying to do so with someone else’s money. Of course, some people willingly provide scholarships for students who want to study. It is an encouragement to study hard, go on to do valuable work in society, and earn money in return.

Those who receive such support can later create a virtuous social cycle by using the money they earn through work to provide scholarships for someone else. But the current tuition regulation merely imposes rigid prices and forcibly redistributes costs.

Normalizing the tuition system would provide an opportunity to enhance university autonomy and vitality. The Ministry of Education should remove the regulations through which it has controlled tuition by improper means and put educational administration back on the right track so that university education can improve.

Sung-no Choi, President of the Center for Free Enterprise (CFE)

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Original title: 등록금 인상, 대학에 맡겨야

Author: Sung-no Choi

Date: 2023-02-01

Source: https://www.cfe.org/bbs/bbsDetail.php?cid=press&idx=25316