Gwangyang City Collects Opinions on 'Full Tuition Support Program' for University Students

50~100% Support for Personal Tuition Fees

Gwangyang City in Jeollanam-do is developing and sequentially unveiling new welfare policies to complete the 「Gwangyang City Life-cycle Welfare Platform」, the nation’s most comprehensive and robust welfare system.

According to the city on the 18th, before implementing the full support project for university tuition fees, it announced that it will collect citizens’ opinions through the Gwangyang City Hall website until May 17.

[Photo by Gwangyang City]

The purpose of Gwangyang City’s full support project for university tuition fees is to reduce parents’ educational expenses and provide equal educational opportunities so that students can demonstrate their abilities and talents, thereby discovering and nurturing future talents of Gwangyang.

The university tuition fees announced by the Ministry of Education average 6.8 million KRW per year for the 2023 academic year (7.6 million KRW for private universities, 4.2 million KRW for national/public universities). Including housing and living expenses, university students bear costs exceeding 10 million KRW annually, which leads to difficulties such as giving up university admission, dropping out after enrollment, and problems with student loan repayment after graduation.

To address these issues, the city plans to support the actual tuition fees paid by students after deducting scholarships (tuition support) received from the government, schools, and institutions. Depending on whether the student graduated from elementary, middle, or high school in the city or the length of residency, the city will support from 50% to 100% of the student’s tuition burden, enabling students to focus solely on their studies without financial stress.

Students who graduated from all elementary, middle, and high schools in the city or have a combined residency period of 7 years or more will receive 100% support of their tuition burden; those who graduated from elementary and middle schools or have a combined residency of 5 years or more will receive 70%; and those who only graduated from high school or have a combined residency of 3 years or more will receive 50% support.

The city plans to implement the project starting in 2025, expanding coverage in the first year to 4th-year students, in the second year to 3rd and 4th-year students, in the third year to 2nd through 4th-year students, and by the fourth year to all students from 1st through 4th year.

New university entrants will not be subject to grade requirements for the first semester, while enrolled students can receive support for up to eight semesters if their previous semester’s grade is B or higher.

Citizens with opinions on this project can submit them through the “Citizen Participation - New Policy Pre-disclosure” board on the Gwangyang City Hall website by May 17. The city plans to proceed with the project after completing the administrative procedures following the collection of opinions.

Jung In-hwa, Mayor of Gwangyang City, said, “The full support project for university tuition fees will provide students with fair educational opportunities and create conditions to focus solely on their studies, while reducing the educational expense burden on parents. It will also serve as an educational policy that contributes to population policies such as increasing the birth rate.”

Meanwhile, Gwangyang City is promoting a support project for internet lecture fees for high school students to improve relatively poor educational conditions compared to the metropolitan area. It also operates the Gwangyang Dormitory (located in Seoul) to ensure housing stability for students attending universities in Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Incheon, striving to realize educational welfare.