S.Korea students rally for tuition fee cuts

[unreal.livejournal.com]

SOUTH Korean college students, civic groups and opposition parties held a candlelit rally on Friday to call for quick government action to reduce tuition fees.

South Korea has the world's second-highest average college tuition fees after the United States, according to a 2009 Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development report.

Police warned of stern action if protesters occupied streets or engaged in other illegal acts. But organisers went ahead with the protest in a plaza in central Seoul.

Police put the number of protesters at 2,000.

Some 510 civic groups have formed a coalition to support students and opposition party leaders also vowed to take part in the rally.

Tuition fees became a sensitive political issue this year after several leaders of the ruling Grand National Party (GNP) proposed halving fees, in an attempt to woo voters before next year's parliamentary elections

Source: straitstimes

Comments

[gigiettu.livejournal.com]

I feel your pain South Korean students I feel it hard

[jela-ow.livejournal.com]

I'm kind of conflicted on our country's tho. It pisses me off that more money is given to the military but the reason for the budget cuts of the state colleges kinda make sense to me. Also, they're using some of the money to build schools in extremely rural places, but the AFP still sucks ass so idk what to feel

[chraka.livejournal.com]

only 2000?

[nighttimefalls.livejournal.com]

Oh right, just like the university where I'm in. Forever rallying regarding tiution and other fee increase and cuts. That kind of issue is never gonna end, sadly.

[czarny.livejournal.com]

How do Amerikans and South Krns afford tuition. What if ur poor do you just not go to Uni and stay poor forever.

[jela-ow.livejournal.com]

well, in the US, I know that you can get student loans that you can pay off after you graduate. idk about SK tho

[czarny.livejournal.com]

Is it low interest and subject to the person getting a job afterwards? I.e. if they don't have a job for a while they don't have to pay it back until they're earning right?

[jela-ow.livejournal.com]

I'm not from the US so I'm not sure too sure about it but I think the interest isn't that low but it's also not incredibly high. From what I know, you can defer payment but the interest piles up so you end up having to pay more and more money.

[czarny.livejournal.com]

That is so unfair! It's free here in Scandinavia o.O

[jela-ow.livejournal.com]

You're really lucky then!! I'm from the Philippines and education from state colleges is getting more and more expensive. We're a third world country, yeah, but tuition wasn't really much of a problem for average income families before :(

[czarny.livejournal.com]

Oh god :/ I hate these barriers to social mobility. I wonder why the tuition fees kept going up.

[jela-ow.livejournal.com]

ikr! For state universities in the Philippines, the tuition fees get more expensive because the government cuts the budget for the school. They give various reasons why, some make sense, some don't. What I find worse about the whole thing is that not a lot of scholarships are given to students who really cannot afford to pay and those who are awarded them need to be extremely bright, but how can a kid who lives in poverty and attends public school all his life be able to get the most out of his schooling when even the quality of education he gets is subpar? :(

[czarny.livejournal.com]

Oh I understand that, I think they have made similar budget cuts across Europe which explains why the UK had protests against it.

I see what you mean =( Scholarships would be a good way for people to get opportunities but then yeah they would need to be exceptional. Another pity because the Philippines is one of the next emerging economies and if the population has difficulty getting access to education then you'll just get a lot of very rich elite and the majority will fall behind. =(

[miszchelle.livejournal.com]

inflation.

[pumpkinskin.livejournal.com]

There's financial aid from the federal government and also state that you can apply for. There are also scholarships, grants, work-study and loans. Most student loans do not bill you until after you graduate. Most also do not carry an interest until repayment starts.

[lilipute.livejournal.com]

The best thing to do is to work your ass off in highschool to get that scholarship, then go to a community college and get a job so you can save up more money so that when you do transfer to a university you won't be broke ass hell, and can afford to pay whatever fees financial or the scholarships don't cover.

If you get financial aid, you can pay for your books and other fees and then get a check for whatever amount of the money granted to you that you didn't spend,so you can take it to the bank and add it your savings.

Financial aid also gives you choices of loans that come subsidized and unsubsidized. The subsidized one doesn't start adding interest until you start paying it back, and subsidized starts adding interest the moment you get it.

My parents always made it clear that there was no college fund, so it was either a scholarship or no college.

[annhh.livejournal.com]

dude... I hope you can go/went to college

[lilipute.livejournal.com]

I am, thankfully.

[figus204.livejournal.com]

It's when I read things like this that I get really happy that I live in Sweden since we don't have to pay for our education at all.. well, books and things like that you have to pay for but other than that it's free..

Even though I'm so sick of school at the moment I still find it a real comfort that no matter how little money you have you still have the opportunity to get yourself a proper education :)

[miszchelle.livejournal.com]

definitely feel their frustration. tuition prices sucks so much in the us :/ i wish i cared in high school. reminds of the rally that the cal-states had a few months ago. i hope their tuition doesn't keep on hiking too much.

[lainmyownworld.livejournal.com]

my tuition is going up next year :/

[miszchelle.livejournal.com]

mine too :/ it's probably gonna be inching closer to 56k a year.

[lainmyownworld.livejournal.com]

holy fuck! i go to a state school, so its not quite that high!

[birdofpray09.livejournal.com]

Oh man that sucks, bb. Mine's going up to about 40k and I thought that was bad.

[royalantares.livejournal.com]

Our tuition is going up next year. Thankfully I'm graduating this Saturday but my brother will have to deal with it soon. California is bankrupt so I can sympathize with a bit with the raise because there's no money ANYWHERE for anyone.

[jasmineakaiumi.livejournal.com]

I came to Korea because I thought tuition was comparatively cheaper than in the US..?

8K a year for photography but in the US at the colleges I wanted to go to it was something like 36K? idk

[kamakazza.livejournal.com]

I feel your pain and i need to go start a rally too! I pay so much in tuition it is ridiculous, I pay over 36k a year.