◀ Anchor ▶
As the school age population is rapidly declining, it is becoming more and more difficult to find new students, especially for universities and colleges in the region.
Some schools even offer the benefit of free tuition and started accepting students.
Reporter Junho Lee covered the story.
◀ Report ▶
Banners saying that students over the age of 35 can attend school free of charge were put up all over downtown Gangneung.
For the first time this year, this junior college provides 100% tuition support to 180 full-time students entering eight majors.
We are trying to fill the quota by significantly increasing the number of adult students and to receive support from the Ministry of Education.
The school’s new student recruitment rate last year was 79.8%.
70% in 3 years.
[정영수/강릉영동대 기획평가센터장]
“It is very difficult to fill the position as we are attracting applications targeting high school seniors, so the ultimate goal is to create jobs for re-employed and middle-aged people…”
Another community college decided to support freshmen for two years of tuition.
Every freshman goes to school virtually for free.
Various educational expenses are additionally paid with the 7.7 billion won received from the Ministry of Education and others.
[심도식/강원도립대 기획홍보처장]
“You can receive prize money by participating in the program, and (I will apply) to the extent that some students earn several million won pocket money while attending a semester.”
Even though they have put forward unconventional conditions, local colleges are struggling to recruit students again this year.
In most of the vocational colleges in Gangwon-do that completed regular recruitment, the competition rate barely exceeded or fell short of 1:1.
We reduced the number of people, but the number of supporters decreased even more.
[이원학/강원연구원 기획조정실장]
“In 50 years, the number of births has decreased to a quarter. But it is still a university created for students in the age of 1 million. I think it is important to build capacity (as a lifelong education institution) together with the region.”
Last year, the quota for junior colleges across the country was 148,000, a decrease of 72,000 in 11 years.
However, the number of new students has decreased more steeply, and the recruitment rate has remained at an average of 80% after 2021.
This is MBC News Lee Junho.
Video coverage: Kim Jong-yoon (Gangwon Yeong-dong)
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