By That is what many students and families think in Korea:
Thousands of students and other people protesting high college tuition staged a series of candlelight vigils over the weekend, including a 5,000-strong rally on Friday, claiming tuition is a matter of survival to them.
Since the first protest on May 29, the rallies, dubbed the “candlelight vigils for half-priced tuition without any conditions,” have been held daily, although the sizes have varied.
Police have not given approval for the rallies at Cheonggye Plaza, central Seoul, but they have allowed the peaceful rallies to proceed. However, the police presence at the scene has been strong. On Saturday, about 200 protesters gathered there without conflict against 1,800 police. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
Here is an example from the article of how much students pay in tuition:
Lee Ji-hun, 25, a student at Korea University, said, “Although my parents are paying my tuition, which is about 7 million won per year, I always feel sorry for them. I think cutting tuition is important, but there are other problems that need to be solved in universities, such as increasing the number of faculty members on campuses. In my university, professors are really busy, giving both undergraduate and postgraduate lectures and also doing administration, which results in declining teaching quality.”
In my opinion 7 million won a year in tuition to go to a top university in Korea really isn’t that bad. Also the student’s recommendation to increase the faculty would mean that tuition would have to go up even further to pay the new faculty members. If this is the rate most people are paying for a top university than it appears to me that tuition is not the problem, but rather the lack of jobs out of college for students to pay back these loans.
She hasn’t seen...
11:11 pm on June 13th, 2011 1
Good post.
I think the student quoted in the article has the right idea but wrong details. Consider these facts from a chosun newspaper.
Korean universities have 32.7 students/prof, double the OECD average.
Average number of library books/student at top K universities is 70, which is lower than the lowest-ranking 113 US unis.
Seoul National budgets W250,000 for materials/student, which is less than the lowest-ranking American university’s W270,000.
So the question for K-students is this: where does the money go if not the library, facilities or staff?
btw here is the newspaper link
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2011/06/08/2011060801059.html
1:01 am on June 14th, 2011 2
Yes, Rob, that is ONE of the questions for K-students who most probably already have the answer but – another question might well be : how do
those funds arrive at their intended destination(?) and the answer to THAT question will be shunned by all in fear of ruining THEIR own chances
to reap the rewards when and if they too become a part of the SYSTEM.
1:46 am on June 14th, 2011 3
You’re thinking like an American – where repaying student loans is a part of life for a typical university graduate. Very few Korean college students pay their tuition with loans.
1:55 am on June 14th, 2011 4
They can always move to the USA and get a full boat minority scholarship. Plus, they can still drown themselves in soju and protest, (burn the US flag) all they want.
1:56 am on June 14th, 2011 5
BTW, why are they protesting near the US embassy? Why aren’t they protesting ON THEIR COLLEGE CAMPUSES? Would make more sense, don’t you think?
2:23 am on June 14th, 2011 6
Foreign students typically pay full tuition and it their tuition payments that (in part) allow universities to allow exceptional US students to attend school with full or partial scholarships.
2:23 am on June 14th, 2011 7
So what are you saying Archieb, that they’re drunks, protesting against the US, just because where they happen to be protesting is in Seoul?
If that ain’t the perfect case of a victim complex, then I don’t know what is.
How about this, why don’t you pack up your a$$ and get out of the way and out of Korea?
2:30 am on June 14th, 2011 8
“They can always move to the USA and get a full boat minority scholarship. Plus, they can still drown themselves in soju and protest, (burn the US flag) all they want.”
Oh really now? It’s all about the US now isn’t it? It’s the Korean students who have ruined the US! Says the Americans. It’s the Korean students moving to the US for free at the expense of Americans!
This is the typical mindset of the American public and their brainwashing by their media.
2:42 am on June 14th, 2011 9
I see you’ve moved back to Canada, Tom…Miss the syrup?
2:49 am on June 14th, 2011 10
Oh no. I don’t see Koreans burning the American flag at US universities. I see them in the library a lot though, and they seem to be getting engineering degrees, and HOLY CRAP working for US companies and making them lots of $$$ stateside. I was talking to one new engineer out of NCSU though and it took him one year to find a job with an engineering firm out here though.
Minority scholarships for Fresh Off the Boat Koreans? Are you kidding? Go to your campus library and look who is busting their ass off to get good grades and look at all the articles on keeping FOB Koreans out of top universities because there’s too many good candidates.
Oh yeah, and Mommy and Daddy are working hard too to help pay for living expenses… OH YEAH… and because the FOB or 1.5 might be in on a student VISA they could be working illegally part time on top of all the studying to support themselves but the good kids are usually working legally for the university – holy crap – IN THE LIBRARY.
3:20 am on June 14th, 2011 11
Without all the FOB students, there would be no students in the libraries, or even there will be no students in those universities, period.
Who’s going to fill up all those engineer and science jobs at Microsoft and US defence industry? 
Good luck with providing university seats to Mexicans, under privledged blacks, and white guys in football jock straps. 
3:23 am on June 14th, 2011 12
Why not? You did.
I can’t say you are not leading by example. You ditched your county and heritage in hopes of being successful in the West.
No problem! Can’t argue with you there. Otherwise you’d probably be a drunk student in Korea protesting outside the French embassy. amirite?
5:02 am on June 14th, 2011 13
You are right!
Like most Koreans, under the age of 50 something, Tom’s a hypocrite. They want Americans out, unless they are getting more hand-outs from them, or fighting and dying to protect them. Funny, if Korea is so great, why do those former Korean students stay and work for US companies? Everyone but Little Member Tom knows why and it ain’t just the money.
Anyway, my guess is, most of those Koreans in the libraries are probably plagerising and thinking of ways to cheat on their exams. You know, the same thing they do in Korea and are famous for around the world.
What’s wrong anyway Tom? Your mommy didn’t make your breakfast, choose and set out your clothes to wear for the day, or allow you to get the hair cut you wanted did she? You know, the things Korean moms do for their sons until they are 35 or married…and even then.
Maybe some white girl laughed at your liitle thingy again. Did your mom leave your dad for some well hung white guy Tom, or maybe it was a black dude? Just guessing.
You 3rd World Koreans should be grateful you are given jobs by American and foreign companies, not to mention protecting you whole pathetic country allowing your kind to leech off the rest of the world and trash foreigners in general.
If it wasn’t for the Americans protecting YOUR people Tom, “the miracle of the Han” would be nothing more than “mud huts on the Han” just like the way it was before you ungrateful Koreans threw your temper tantrums that got thousands of foreigners killed.
I’m guessing Tom is one of those people that walk around pretending to the friend of the Canadians around him, yet he secretly hates them and talks about them behind their backs. The type of thing Koreans accuse the Japanese of doing, but they do it more themselves. At least most ESL teachers complain about things in the open, one of the complaints made by Koreans and others about them. Can’t say that about Tom and most Koreans however.
Without the US, or foreigners in general, with their military protection, and/or foreign investment, Korea would be nothing. This should be apparent to all, but the stupidest of people.
The world owes Korea nothing, Koreans owe the World everything despite the fact Koreans think otherwise.
5:50 am on June 14th, 2011 14
I met a fair amount of Korean college and graduate students in the US (and France) over the years. By Korean, I mean those born and raised in Korea who went abroad for college, not those who were educated abroad in secondary and/or elementary school. I also mean students in the humanities…
By in large, they were intelligent and often better read than their American-raised counter-parts, at least at the graduate school level. But, they were often a good bit behind in terms of critical thinking skills.
They could tell you all the Derrida and Foucault they had read, but they were not good at applying it to something on their own.
(And Korean academics have been pointing out the lack of the development of critical thinking skills in Korean education, and have been trying to change it, for a couple of decades at minimum.)
5:55 am on June 14th, 2011 15
#6- That’s not true and you know it. Foreign students get plenty of scholarships.
#8- So, you didn’t qualify? Plenty of others are riding that full boat in the USA. Don’t see anyone leaving the USA to go to college in Korea, China, or anywhere else in Asia. Why is that?
5:57 am on June 14th, 2011 16
Why aren’t the Korean students protesting on their college campuses? Why aren’t they protesting at the education offices? Why are they protesting a block away from the US embassy? Any apologists care to explain?
5:59 am on June 14th, 2011 17
Or should I say protesting less than a block away from the US embassy? Why protest there against their own college tuition?
6:22 am on June 14th, 2011 18
Cheonggye Plaza is also just down from city hall. If they wanted to make a statement including the US Embassy, they could use Gwanghwamun Square. It is right across the embassy and at least within site of it.
(And nobody would accuse me of being an apologist.)
1:44 pm on June 14th, 2011 19
Actually some of the readers here left the us to go to college in korea for a little while, and I think the language barrier has something to do with more americans not trying to go to china and japan – but a lot more study abroad iks going on there.
2:18 pm on June 14th, 2011 20
18-The Seoul government has already stated, many times, that there will be NO protests in Gwanghwamun Square. There has been a BIG TIME police show of force in that area because of these protests. As one of the few posters who has actually been in that area over the past few days, you can take it from me that there are literally thousands of policemen in formation all around the square, and the mobile police buses are lined up in front of the US embassy and down that street to the corner with the large post office.
There are also regular horse patrols and motorcycle police, riding in formation, all around the square. In fact, when you get off the subway at Gwanghwamun Station you are greeted by a formation of about 25 policemen. They are serious about making sure the protestors do no damage to the square.
2:20 pm on June 14th, 2011 21
But, again, the question is not answered- why are they protesting near the US embassy and not on their campuses or at education offices? Who is leading these protests and what did they hope to do by having the protests in the area of the US embassy?
2:28 pm on June 14th, 2011 22
#21, more visibility?
3:08 pm on June 14th, 2011 23
22- Could be. But then, the decision-makers who can actually lower tuition don’t really feel any impact from their protests. A sit-in at a university’s chacellor’s office would get the point across to someone who matters.
My educated guess? There are some of the “professional protestor” ilk who want to use these kids to have protests in Seoul, especially in that US embassy vicinity. In case you haven’t followed the Seoul news, the issues involving protests have taken over entire sessions of the Seoul city council. The mayor has stood firm against protests in that Gwanghwamun area while the left-wing city council has tried to allow protests in that area. These college kids are being used by “professional protestors” with a larger agenda.
3:59 pm on June 14th, 2011 24
damn this archibeitch cry too much waaa waaa waa shut your dam mouth already geez
4:38 pm on June 14th, 2011 25
I’ve been down by there at least once a week, and I noted the massive increase in riot police, but this is the protest season. A week or two ago, there were a group of about 30 or so people standing in lines outside the Donga Ilbo with a couple of lines of riot police standing between them and the doors.
There has been an increased police presence near the road to the Blue House and the nearby Chinese Embassy too. An extra bus has been parked outside the embassy. Yesterday on the way home, at the turn to go to the Blue House, I noticed a protest by the handicapped NGO at the police station at that corner.
Tis the season…
4:39 pm on June 14th, 2011 26
Well, gwanghwamun is not just in front of the embassy, it is the closest you can get to te blue house with a lrge crowd since you can’t exactly protest in kyungbok palace. I agree that pro protesters are probably orgaizing it and they probably got lazy with 5their logistical and oprations planning and just templated it
4:41 pm on June 14th, 2011 27
I forgot – I notice the riot police are not wearing battle gear – as was the norm in years past. I haven’t seen riot shields and helmets so far.
In the past, when Gwanghwamun Square was lanes of traffic, the radical anti-US groups would shut it down with illegal protests when they wanted to make a statement against USFK and/or the US – and average Koreans would sometimes join them in mass.
4:44 pm on June 14th, 2011 28
Wait, only 200? There are more people concerned about korean pop stars as the paris airport
5:26 pm on June 14th, 2011 29
“In my opinion 7 million won a year in tuition to go to a top university in Korea really isn’t that bad. ”
Considering the services the students get? It’s a ripoff.
5:44 pm on June 14th, 2011 30
Hey look they are protesting again! It must be against the US! After all, Koreans only protest against America! Bad Koreans, how dare they protest around downtown Seoul? They are protesting America! Korean lives must revolve around hating Americans.
This only proves American arrogance, their hatred for Koreans, and their paranoia. This thread proves their mentality and their attitude toward non-Americans.
7:17 pm on June 14th, 2011 31
Education in Korea is more comodified than in most developed countries. They are NOT selling quality, and increased prices are NOT related to improvements of any sort.
Like all commodities, when demand increases, the price will increase. Korean universities are selling a ‘brand’ more than they are selling an ‘experience’. When name brands become more important than actual quality (Korea is a perfect model for this on many levels), then the owners of the name brand good will increase it’s price, tightening the screws on the people who desperately want their product and will do anything to get it.
Sure, it’s not “fair” and it’s not how universities should “work”, but the schools themselves are only a small part of the cycle that has lead to increased tuition costs. Employers, parents and media outlets placing so much emphasis on the university’s name has rightly caused the demand for top university brand ‘names’ to increase. Tuition hikes were always part of that equation.
If you over-value my product based solely on it’s brand name and quality, I have no incentive to improve the quality, but all the incentive in the world to raise the price of whatever it is that I am selling.
7:40 pm on June 14th, 2011 32
@31,
Pretty much right on. Education in Korea is about the name on the paper not the actual learning involved. Its no different then “name brand” purses or shoes. Once that happened the prices were going to sky rocket, expect even more tuition hikes or other “fee” increases in the future.
9:13 pm on June 14th, 2011 33
ArchieB, thanks for the on-the-spot description (#20). I haven’t made it to Seoul yet this summer, but this is something I will check out.
10:07 pm on August 27th, 2011 34
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