Last year, student activists managed to make high tuition fees a social and political issue. Their vehement protests led the government to roll out a plan to cut college tuition by 30 percent by 2014. Political parties reacted reflexively, pledging to cut tuition rates in half.

This year, student protests are expected to intensify as private universities are announcing cuts that hardly match up to their expectations. Protests are also expected at public universities as Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon’s decision to halve the tuition fees of the municipal university has triggered demand for half-price tuition there.

According to the Korea Student Aid Foundation, the nation’s 337 universities and colleges were expected to notify it of their tuition schedules for 2012 by Jan. 27. But only 186 schools or 55 percent of the total fixed their tuition levels for this year by the deadline.

The foundation said on Jan. 19 that the average tuition reduction among the schools that had set their fees for 2012 was 4.8 percent. This is close to the 5 percent guideline presented by the Korea Council for University Education, an association of the presidents of four-year universities in Korea.

But the reduction is much smaller than that suggested by the Board of Audi and Inspection. Last year, the state auditor conducted a comprehensive inspection of the financial operations of 113 universities to find out why higher education has become so expensive.

The auditor found that the biggest reason for constant tuition hikes was the practice of schools overstating expenditures and understating revenues. They used the artificially created budget gaps to justify fee increases.

Based on its findings, the BAI suggested that universities and colleges would be able to cut fees by an average 15 percent if they put their finances in order.

As universities’ tuition cuts are nowhere near the level suggested by the BAI, let alone their demand for 50 percent reduction, disappointed students are moving to ratchet up their protests.

The Korean University Students’ Association said it would seek to make tuition fees a campaign issue of the forthcoming general election. The activist group plans to rally student voters behind candidates who commit themselves to cutting tuition in half.

The group is also planning to start a campaign for students of public universities with regard to refunding of “school support fees.” A Seoul court has recently ruled that there is no legal basis for public universities to collect these fees, which have been used to finance the expansion of school facilities, as part of tuition.

These fees have been the mainstay of public universities’ tuition income. In 2010, they accounted for 84.6 percent of their tuition revenues. Private universities stopped collecting these fees more than a decade ago when their legality was first questioned.

The court’s ruling has fueled demand for half-price tuition among students of public universities, which was ignited by Park. To execute his campaign pledge, the mayor ordered officials to halve the tuition fees of the University of Seoul, which were already lower than those of private universities.

The mayor’s decision has stirred up students and professors of other public universities. So much so that the presidents of national universities have reportedly agreed to call on the government to increase the budget for state-run universities by 800 billion won a year to finance a 50 percent tuition cut.

Thus demand for half-price tuition is escalating. But we need to put the brakes on it. Making higher education more affordable is without a doubt necessary. Yet cutting tuition fees in half for all university students is something that obviously goes beyond the capacity of the government.

Even if the government can afford it, the wisdom of doing so is questionable. A more desirable approach is to expand scholarships and low-cost loans to help students from low-income families finance their tertiary education.

In this regard, presidents of national universities should refrain from demanding government funding to halve the tuition fees of their schools. It is deeply disappointing that they echo the populist demand of student activists.

To curb students’ excessive demands, private universities need to show that they are doing their best to cut the cost of higher education. Major universities with big reserve funds need to cut tuition by as much as the level suggested by the BAI. Otherwise, they would simply fuel the resentment of students and their parents.