Fewer University Students Rely on Parents for Tuition

The portion of university students who rely on their parents for tuitions has fallen sharply over the last 10 years, while more and more humanities and social sciences majors take time out from school to prepare for viable jobs.

The Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training analyzed data from the Korea Employment Information Service on 25,987 university graduates in 2005 and 2014.

It finds that the proportion of university students who relied on their parents for tuitions fell 17.2 points from 75.3 percent in 2005 to 58.1 percent in 2014. Instead, those who relied on loans increased 11.3 points from 5.1 to 16.4 percent.

University students who took time off from school for financial reasons dwindled from 8.5 to 6.7 percent over the same period. But the proportion who took time off to prepare for jobs in the so-called real world soared from 11.4 to 25.2 percent among humanities majors, from 20.5 to 33.8 percent among social science majors and 11.9 to 17 percent among engineering and science students.

The number of years students spent at university rose from an average 5.4 in 2005 to 5.7 in 2014 as more and more students took time off to acquire job-related skills.