[Lee Hyukwoo's Beyond the Frame] University Policies That Defy Human Nature Can Never Achieve Intended Outcomes

Zero Tuition for National Universities and the Push for Ten Seoul National Universities
Would High-Achieving Students Give Up Top Schools Solely for Free Tuition?
Students from Other Regions Face Additional Housing Costs
Free Tuition Alone

The "zero tuition fees for national universities" policy, together with the "establishment of 10 Seoul National University-level institutions," forms the core of the higher education strategy promoted by the Lee Jaemyung administration.

These initiatives are rooted in the administration's national goal of nurturing key universities to foster balanced regional development and increase the likelihood that young talent will remain in their local areas. However, there is a fundamental limitation: the policy design relies on the simplistic "engineering logic" that students, when faced with similar conditions, will choose universities without tuition fees, and from this, that the concentration in the Seoul metropolitan area will be alleviated. This is a hasty assumption.

On August 28th, at Seoul National University in Gwanak-gu, Seoul, graduates are throwing their caps in the air and taking commemorative photos during the 80th Fall Commencement Ceremony. Photo by Yonhap News.

Engineering and science are distinctly different. While science is about identifying and understanding fundamental principles, engineering is the domain in which those principles are used to develop applied solutions. Therefore, if we call policy “engineering,” its scientific foundation must be built on “anthropology”—the science of humans. If this is the case, then even the most sophisticated policy engineering will inevitably fail if it ignores the underlying principles of human nature. Just as a machine works smoothly when its design abides by the laws of water flow or gravity, so too does a policy function well when aligned with human nature—but when confronted with variables counter to those laws, enormous energy and excessive machinery are needed, just as is the case when fighting against the flow of water or gravity. In fact, one cannot even design a system that goes against gravity without a complete and thorough understanding of the scientific Law of Universal Gravitation.

In fact, the criteria for assessing whether a policy is grounded in science are surprisingly simple. For any policy expected to affect people's behavior and lifestyles, one just needs to ask, “Would I personally act as the policy expects?” While individuals may seem vastly different, in reality, human nature is remarkably similar. In most cases, if I would not do something, it is correct to expect that others also will not. Policies designed to run contrary to human nature can never achieve their intended results.

In that light, let us pose a question about the “zero tuition fees for national universities” policy to policy officials: If your own child achieved grades far superior to the admissions criteria at a national university, would you advise them to choose a regional national university over a prestigious university in the Seoul metropolitan area, simply because tuition is free? Most likely, you would not. Of course, if the admission standards of a metropolitan university and a regional national university were similar, free tuition might become a relevant variable. However, even in this case, for students who live in the metropolitan area, the additional cost of living away from home for a regional university would outweigh the benefit of free tuition—so the zero-fee incentive is often insufficient to sway their choice.

Consequently, this policy will almost exclusively affect a very limited group: students from regional areas who are agonizing between a metropolitan university and a regional national university, and who, but for this policy, would have chosen to study in the metropolitan area. Even among these, there are many students from the regions who still wish to attend a metropolitan university, as they and their families are able to bear the tuition and higher living expenses. This reality means that the impact of the policy will be smaller than anticipated. Ultimately, the number of students who stay in a regional area due to the "zero tuition fees for national universities" policy will likely be much smaller than the Ministry of Education estimated. Furthermore, it is highly likely that any vacancies this policy creates at metropolitan universities will be filled by metropolitan students or others who would have otherwise chosen a regional university, based on academic grades. Such dynamics are far removed from the policy’s stated purpose of easing concentration in the Seoul metropolitan area.

The greater problem is that this policy also distorts competition with private universities in the regions, creating a significant side effect. For students whose grades put them in a position to consider both regional national and private universities, the existence of free tuition, with all other factors being equal, will drive them toward the national university. As a result, private universities in the regions will face student abandonment and even the risk of closure. Yet, for these students, the choice was always between regional institutions, not between regional and metropolitan; so, retaining them within the region cannot be called a success in preventing the outflow of regional talent or achieving balanced development. Moreover, while less competitive national universities—currently struggling to fill their freshman quotas—may survive under this policy, far more competitive private universities (in specific majors) face extinction due to the unfair pricing environment. These tuition-free benefits are limited to some 30 designated national universities, including flagship, regionally focused, and teachers’ universities. As the school-age population is projected to decline dramatically by the 2030s, this policy threatens to undermine the reform efforts of private regional universities struggling to survive, and could collapse the local university ecosystem into a single system dominated by national universities—driving confusion and posing a real threat to student choice of competitive private universities and programs. In short, an engineering-focused approach that disregards human nature produces negative outcomes that benefit no one.

On the morning of September 2nd, the test day for the September mock evaluation of the 2027 College Scholastic Ability Test, students are preparing to take the exam at Seoul Women's High School in Mapo-gu, Seoul. 2026. 09. 02 Photo by Joint Press Corps

Even from the perspective of policy “engineering,” the zero tuition fees for national universities policy is poorly designed. Every engineering solution should be evaluated by clear performance indicators. In this case, the most appropriate metrics for achieving balanced regional development would be “the region-of-origin student matriculation rate to local universities” and “the metropolitan-area student enrollment rate at regional universities.” The issue is that this policy fails to account for the myriad factors students consider when selecting universities. But even more concerning is that, if such indicators are introduced, it is almost inevitable that similar indicators will be imposed on other university funding programs. In practice, universities facing financial difficulties have repeatedly designed their programs according to government-preferred concepts each cycle, creating performance metrics to secure Ministry of Education support. Such regional metrics—like local retention, local employment, and local entrepreneurship—were born in this way.

Looking back at the confusion caused by the "zero tuition fees for national universities" policy, the core scientific principle that education policy should embrace is simple: students and their parents want universities with strong reputations, good employment outcomes, and high educational quality. Therefore, we need more universities that people—including policymakers—would actually want to entrust their own children to, not ones where they hope someone else will go instead. Ministry of Education policy must invest in these fundamentals. Policies that rely only on crude engineering—like the “zero tuition fees for national universities,” which ignores the essential university missions of educational and research excellence while focusing only on price discounts—are doomed to fail. This is why policies require not only engineering, but also thorough scientific reflection.

Hyukwoo Lee, Professor of Public Administration at Pai Chai University (Chairman of the Regulation Monitoring Committee, Good Regulation Citizen Forum)

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.