The Korea Student Aid Foundation (Chairman Bae Byungil) and the Ministry of Education (Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Lee Juhyo) announced on June 4 that they have successfully completed the student loan support for the first semester of the 2025 academic year.
As a result, loans totaling 1.1432 trillion won were provided to 320,000 students, representing an increase of 55.9 billion won (up 5.1%) compared to the same period last year.
Of this amount, Income Contingent Loan (ICL) disbursements increased by 5 billion won (up 1.1%), while general repayment loan disbursements rose by 50.9 billion won (up 8.0%).
In the case of ICL loans, the increase in graduate student enrollment, expansion of ICL interest exemptions, and encouragement of ICL conversion loans contributed to a 5.4 billion won (up 14.9%) increase in graduate student loan amounts, driving the overall growth of ICL loans.
For general repayment loans, the continued provision of low interest rates (1.7%) to alleviate the financial burden of tuition resulted in an increase in undergraduate loan amounts by 26.7 billion won (up 8.6%) and graduate student loan amounts by 24.2 billion won (up 7.3%).
Additionally, tuition loans increased by 36.1 billion won (up 5.3%), and living expense loans rose by 19.8 billion won (up 4.8%).
It is estimated that, due to rising university tuition, high inflation, and worsening economic conditions such as the employment crisis, students have used low-interest student loans to cover the tuition and living expenses necessary to continue their studies.
The Korea Student Aid Foundation is a quasi-governmental organization under the Ministry of Education, established in 2009 to provide professional and comprehensive student financial support so that anyone can have access to higher education according to their will and ability, regardless of economic circumstances. With an annual budget exceeding 11 trillion won, the foundation carries out various projects to foster future talent, including national scholarships, student loans, national excellence scholarships, national work-study scholarships, donations, and mentoring programs.
Since the implementation of student loans in the second semester of 2009, the Korea Student Aid Foundation has maintained an outstanding loan balance of approximately 11 trillion won as of April 2025. Through ongoing efforts to ensure loan soundness, the delinquency rate has been kept at 2.56%, which is a very stable level compared to major countries such as the United States and Japan.
Bae Byungil, Chairman of the Korea Student Aid Foundation, stated, "The purpose of student loans is to support young people so that they can focus on their studies regardless of their financial circumstances," and added, "We will continue to actively provide low-interest student loans to help reduce the financial burden on many undergraduate and graduate students."
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