Protesters demand college tuition cuts

Students, civic group members and politicians flocked to Seoul’s Gwanghwamun area Friday evening for the candle light vigil urging the government and the ruling party to follow up on their pledge to halve college tuition.

Students, nongovernmental organizations and opposition politicians have called on the ruling Grand National Party to keep its promise to halve college tuition.

GNP’s new floor leader Hwang Woo-yea announced last month that the party will push ahead with the “half-price tuition” policy, which had been one of President Lee’s key campaign pledges.

Hwang said Friday his party will hold a public hearing on government responses to the skyrocketing college tuition fees next week, finalize a set of policy measures to lower the tuition within this month and reflect them in next year’s state budget.

Hwang reiterated that the GNP is not considering allowing universities to admit students in exchange for huge donations.

Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik said Friday that the rally scheduled for Friday evening was not going to help solve the tuition problem in a reasonable manner.

“It is a positive sign that social groups and students are discussing various ideas (about the tuition issue), but such a massive group behavior won’t help solve the problem in a rational manner,” Kim said in a weekly policy coordination meeting.

“(The tuition policy) should be designed in consideration of various factors such as the high rates of people who go to college, the need to restructure insolvent universities and the government’s finances, instead of simply focusing on easing the burden on low- and middle-income households.”

Kim called on the Education Ministry to collect views of students, council of universities and tuition experts through productive discussions to seek feasible solutions.

The candle light vigil Friday was led by a nationwide network of people concerned about the high tuition fees, a national alliance of college students and the four opposition political parties. They urged the police to “guarantee a free and peaceful rally.”

Opposition leaders Sohn Hak-kyu of the Democratic Party, Lee Jung-hee of the Democratic Labor Party, Rhyu Si-min of the People’s Participatory Party and Cho Seung-soo of the New Progressive Party joined the rally with members of civic groups, college students.

On Thursday, the student unions of Ewha Womans University, Korea University, Sogang University and Sookmyung Women’s University led student votes on whether the schools should have a no-lecture day on Friday for the massive rally for tuition cuts.

Some 96 percent of 3,751 voters in Sookmyung approved of the plan, while it was virtually called off in the other three schools due to low voter turnouts.

Earlier Friday, women’s groups expressed their support for the candle light vigil in a press conference and several opposition lawmakers staged one-man protests against high tuition at Cheonggye Plaza.

Several conservative NGOs also gathered around Gwanghwamun to hold their own press conferences against the candle light vigils.

College students and their parents here have long complained about the nation’s tuition fees ― the second-highest OECD after the United States.

Last year, the average annual university tuition reached 7.5 million won for private schools and 5 million won for national and public schools.

By Kim So-hyun (sophie@heraldcorp.com)