The Korean Council For University Education holds a meeting on Jan. 22 [NEWS1]
While a survey showed that university presidents were most interested in government funding, recruiting international students jumped to second place for the first time as schools hope for larger international student bodies.
A total of 79.1 percent of the 148 university presidents who responded to a Korean Council for University Education (KCUE) survey said they were most interested in government funding programs, up 7.3 percentage points on year. The survey, released Wednesday, allowed for multiple responses.
Another 60.8 percent of respondents said they were most interested in recruiting international students, up 8.1 percentage points on year.
KCUE has been conducting the survey biannually since 2023, and this is the first time that international student recruitment was the second-most given answer.
The recruitment of new students, which includes Korean students, had been the second-most given answer from 2023. However, the response dropped to third place for the first time, with 51.4 percent saying so for Wednesday’s survey. The figure is down 8.1 percentage points on year.
Another big change for higher education this year was a tuition hike for domestic undergraduates at many universities.
According to the Korean Association of Private University Presidents, 131 out of 190 universities hiked tuition for domestic undergraduates for the 2025 academic year. For the 2024 academic year, only 26 did so.
Regarding where universities plan to use the additional tuition revenue, 49.3 percent of KCUE survey respondents said they will prioritize renovating or building new facilities for students. Multiple answers were also allowed.
Another 37.8 percent said they will use it to build high-tech educational facilities and 27.7 percent said they will repair old facilities.
BY LEE TAE-HEE [[email protected]]
