Recently, 86 out of 193 universities nationwide raised their tuition fees this year which had been frozen since 2009, according to Korea Higher Education Research Institute. Eight out of 10 education universities have raised their tuition to around 4 percent, and more than half of the four-year university presidents who attended the seminar held by the Korean Council for University Education are planning to raise tuition within two years.
Ewha has not yet announced any official plan whether to increase the tuition fee or not. Yet, considering the rising trend of university tuition that was tied up for about 10 years, it is uncertain whether Ewha would be an exception to the fee increase.
In fact, tuition of the school is determined through a system that discusses tuition plans in November and December before deciding on a year- long fixed plan early in the following year. This system implies that students’ opinions cannot be reflected well after the year is over.
Regarding the tuition issue, 58 out of 60 Ewha students opposed raising tuition fees, according to the survey conducted by Ewha Voice from Nov. 7 to 12. Those expressed dissatisfaction with the amount of tuition they are paying every semester, and that they do not feel classes, school facilities, and student welfare are provided enough considering the high tuition fees they currently pay for school.
Almost a half of the respondents pointed out the lack of available courses compared to high tuition. Moreover, 30 percent of the respondents showed discontent over safety accidents caused by deteriorating school buildings, and the remaining 25 percent cited a shortage of welfare facilities such as rest zones, sleeping rooms and practice rooms within the campus.
Recognizing these complaints among students, the Student Services Team conducted a student satisfaction survey this November. Many students expressed their opinions and desired improvements, hoping the survey result would be actively reflected in resolving the ongoing problems.
The major proposals students have set forth were the following three main categories: guaranteeing the right to learn, improving school facilities, and maintaining tuition fees. The issue of the right to learn is a chronic problem students experience every semester due to the lack of courses and professors. Students face difficulties signing up for classes, and this oftentimes leads to additional semesters unavoidable for them in order to graduate. In addition, the problem with school facilities continues to surface among students, such as the loss of lounges where students had used to rest in the engineering buildings and unstable Wi-Fi connections in Ewha-POSCO Building, Asan Engineering Building, and newly remodeled Hak-gwan.
“The school facilities have not been normalized since COVID-19 which I think is a complete mess,” said one student who wished to stay anonymous. “I am totally doubtful about where and how the school is spending my tuition.”
Accordingly, there has been a gradual movement among students over these campus issues. CLASS UP, a TF group composed of Ewha students since last December to call for guaranteeing the right to learn, has formed a student organization “Deungdae” and strives to solve tuition problems in Ewha. They set three major requests — stopping tuition increase, resolution of right to learn, and improvement of living facilities — and delivered them to a total of four offices at school.
According to Deungdae, there was no reply from the Office of the President and Office of Faculty & Academic Affairs. When asked again, the Office of Faculty & Academic Affairs answered that “it is under review by the vice president.”
Deungdae also reported problems with 23 buildings and facilities on campus. The Office of Facilities Management and General Affairs Team responded that elevators of Ewha Campus Complex and Science Building D, where safety accidents have occurred frequently, will be reviewed and replaced. Regarding the unstable Wi-Fi connection problem, the office explained that “the current Wi- Fi models are of the latest model” and that “yet they cannot accommodate all devices since each student carries more than one electronic device at once.”
Eventually, the school rejected demands and cooperation with Deungdae. They disapproved of all related promotional materials posted on bulletin boards and bathrooms in each building, delivering an official letter to student councils asking to remove them when discovered.
Currently, Deungdae is agonizing over additional countermeasures. As November is the time for the school to consider setting tuition fees before the resolution stage, they will continue to speak many students’ voices before the plan is signed in the remaining months.
“Most of the replies from school were unclear or mere reiteration of the utmost current situations,” said Park Seo lim, the head of CLASS UP and Deungdae from the Division of Kinesiology & Sports Studies. “Thus, as a student organization made to raise the voices of students, we are now thinking about what would be needed to solve the problems in Ewha more practically.”