South Korea: Education costs rise sharply.

GD&TĐ - Education costs in South Korea have risen sharply, the highest in 15 years, due to a wave of university tuition fee increases.

According to data from the national statistics agency, education costs increased by 2.3% in 2025, 0.6% higher than the previous year and on par with the increase in 2010. Notably, this increase also contributed to pushing overall consumer inflation up to 2.1%, with education alone contributing 0.16%.

The reason stems from universities beginning to raise tuition fees after more than a decade of maintaining stable rates under government guidance. Since the 2012 "half tuition" movement, when students protested demanding a reduction in the financial burden, the state has promoted support programs and encouraged universities to keep fees unchanged. However, this policy has also led to resource shortages for many educational institutions.

Universities have stated that maintaining low tuition fees for an extended period has made it difficult to recruit high-quality faculty and upgrade facilities. In this context, increasing tuition fees is seen as a necessary solution to ensure the quality of education.

Many education-related expenses have also increased faster than the general inflation rate. Online learning fees rose by 9.4%, self-study materials fees by 4.4%, while skills training and sports programs also saw significant increases. This indicates increasing financial pressure on students across multiple fronts.

According to Korea JoongAng Daily

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