The government has set aside more funds for state scholarships to ease the heavy college tuition burden, allowing college students to receive loans without having to repay them before finding employment, the Education Ministry said Monday.

Increased tuition subsidies will be offered to college students through the 2012 national budget as the government added 250 billion won ($216 million) to the previous 1.5 trillion won, the ministry said.

The extra subsidies are expected to decrease nominal college tuition by 25 percent, 3 percent higher than the previous estimate when the fund amounted to 1.5 trillion won. The subsidies will be given to the bottom 70 percent income bracket, whose annual income is under 51 million won, officials said.

About 760,000 students, about 57 percent of the total, are estimated to be eligible to benefit from the subsidies.

Another 823 billion won will be spent to lower the interest rate of the national student loan by 1 percentage point to 3.9 percent and lower the minimum grade for the loan from B to C.

The government linked increased subsidies to universities’ efforts to decrease their tuition fees as well as to provide students with more scholarships. Depending on their efforts, the government will determine the amount of tuition subsidies they will receive.

About 1.7 million college students, 78 percent of the total in Korea, have applied for the state scholarship since December.

By Lee Woo-young (wylee@heraldcorp.com)