Lessons learned from financing universal higher education in Korea

Since 2005, the total expenditure for Korean higher education has increased. However, the financial support is still anemic compared to financial support for K-12 education. This paper first explain the current situation and problems of financial support for higher education and then suggest policy implications. There are 9 hindrances to securing university funding in Korea: instability, small total allocation, overlapping investments by central government, inconsistency in program promotion goals, connectedness to university structural reform, imbalance among financial support targets, opaqueness of financial support predictability, private university financial structures that heavily depend on tuition fees, and various causes of increases in tuition. Here are several possibilities for solving financial problems in universities and for securing financial support from the government: Financing Higher Education Grants, a higher education tax, formula funding, support for local universities, support for private universities, and financial support that is oriented to consumers. Directions for state subsidies programs can be categorized as follows: financial support that considers both of equity and excellence, unified administration of governmental support funds, reductions of program support, operating expense support to private universities, and dividing financial support for private universities by their financial condition. The key tasks to solve the problem of financial structure in Korean higher education are three such as high dependency on private institutions, heavy dependence on tuition, and the government's minimum investment rules. There should be discussions about high dependency on private resources for university education financing.