Yonsei University highest in annual tuition at 9.01 million won

The average tuition fee that students at four-year colleges and universities in Korea are paying this year stand at 6.688 million won (5,880 U.S. dollars) per student. Students at Yonsei University are paying the highest average tuition (9.016 million won or 7,920 dollars) among four-year colleges and universities in the nation.

The Education Ministry and the Korean Council for University Education announced Friday the current situation of college tuition data and the results of students’ academic performance at its information site (www.academyinfo.go.kr).

The analysis suggests that 160 (85.6 percent) of 187 four-year colleagues and universities in Korea have frozen tuition fees this year. Twenty-four schools including Seoul National University, Kwangwoon University and Kumoh National Institute of Technology have lowered tuition fees. Only three schools namely Daegu Arts University, Songwon University, and Yewon Arts Colleges have hiked their tuition fees from last year.

Nevertheless, the average tuition of all four-year universities has increased by 13,000 won (11.42 dollars) or 0.2 percent this year from last year (6.675 million won or 5,866 dollars). “This is because the portion of humanities and social science majors where tuitions are relatively lower has decreased while that of science and engineering majors increased,” the Education Ministry said.

By college, the average tuition came to 9.535 million won (8,378 dollars) for medical college, 7.79 million won (6,845 dollars) for arts and athletic college, 7.114 million won (6,251 dollars) for engineering college, 6.788 million won (5,965 dollars) for natural science college, and 5.959 million won (5,236 dollars) for humanities and social studies college, indicating that the tuitions for science and engineering colleges are relatively higher.

Among institutions levying higher average tuitions, Yonsei was followed by Korea Polytechnic University (9.003 million won or 7,910 dollars), Ewha Womans University (8.528 million won or 7,493 dollars), Eulchi University (8.499 million won or 7,468 dollars), and Chugye University for the Arts (8.47 million won or 7,440 dollars).

Woo-Sun Lim imsun@donga.com