Students from five private universities in Seoul held a press conference yesterday in support of reducing tuition fees.

South Korean universities are undergoing public scrutiny over college fee rises since a sharp rise in tertiary education costs emerged as a hot social and political issue amid economic difficulties.

Last month the education ministry drew up guidelines to cut this year’s fees by five percent on average.

The Seoul city-run University of Seoul decided to cut tuition fees in half to 1.11-1.33 million won (US$980-1,180) per semester this year.

Some Catholic establishments are cutting their fees – the University of Pusan announced last November that it would cut them by 5.7-9.9 percent this year “to join the government’s move and share parents’ burden.”

The Jesuit-run Sogang University is reportedly planning to freeze fees this year.

But a spokesman for the Catholic University of Korea said that institution has not decided yet whether to cut fees this year, doubting that it can do so since it has already frozen them since 2009.

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