Reasons for Proposal
The current Act stipulates that the head of a school that provides higher education shall publish, at least once a year, information on such matters as the accounting of the school and its foundation, including details of budget and settlement of accounts, and grounds for calculation of tuition fees and education expenses per student.
A 2017 survey of university tuition fees found that university students majoring in the arts and physical education are on average paying approximately 1.83 million won more in tuition fees than those majoring in the humanities and social sciences. However, there are no requirements for the separate disclosure of the grounds for calculation of tuition fees and education expenses per student for each college, and critics have pointed out a lack of transparency regarding the criteria used to calculate the tuition fees of each department.
Although universities claim that tuition fees are higher for arts and physical education departments due to their facility operation costs, materials costs, and other additional education expenses arising from experiments and practical exercises, etc. compared to humanities and social sciences departments, the decrepit state of university laboratories has raised doubts about how their expensive tuition fees are being used.
Accordingly, the Amendment adds support for laboratory and physical education facilities to the scope of information that shall be published by higher educational institutions, and prescribes that matters published concerning the grounds for calculation of tuition fees and education expenses per student, etc., shall include information sorted by department, thereby aiming to contribute to the transparency of educational administration (Article 6, paragraph 1, subparagraph 13 newly inserted, etc.).
Major Provisions
The Amendment adds support for laboratory and physical education facilities to the scope of information that shall be published by higher educational institutions, and prescribes that matters published concerning the grounds for calculation of tuition fees and education expenses per student, etc., shall include information sorted by college (Article 6).
