Yeungnam University announced its scholarship distribution plan for the current semester on August 1st. Many students were excluded from the plan, therefore many complaints and concerns were posted on the campus bulletin board and the student council bulletin board. Students expressed their dissatisfaction with the ambiguous scholarship standards. Many students also pointed out that scholarship distribution varies from department to department. There were also complaints about the ratio of academic scholarships to welfare scholarships.
The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology is due to address the half tuition issue in order to alleviate social polarization and promote fairness in educational opportunities as well as to comply with welfare scholarship increase regulations. Thirteen percent of the total amount of tuition at YU is represented in the form of scholarships, and about 16.5 percent of the total scholarships awarded are need based. Compared to last year, the total scholarship budget has increased, but the number of students who received academic scholarships has decreased.
In order to avoid a drop in student morale and motivation due to dissatisfaction with the scholarship system YU held discussions about tuition on August 22nd. As a result of these meeting the budget was adjusted and there is now 330 million won of additional scholarship funds. This supplemental scholarship budget has allowed for 300 more students to receive scholarships. YU currently gives out more scholarships than any other local private university. However, if the university hopes to maintain equity in scholarship distribution there needs to be greater transparency in how the distribution plan is created. There must also be a more rational proportion of scholarships given for academic performance and those based on need.