Local colleges will be prohibited from raising their tuition fees by more than 2.4 percent for next year, the Education Ministry announced Sunday.

The Korean law on higher education states that an increase in college tuition for any given year cannot be more than 1.5 times higher than the average increase in consumer prices during the three preceding years. The ministry has announced a legal limit for tuition hikes every year since the measure was implemented in 2011.

The figure for 2015 marked a considerable drop from 3.8 percent this year, and from 5 percent and 4.7 percent in 2012 and 2013, respectively.

Any college that violates the measure may face administrative and financial penalties from the education minister.

The tuition hike limit is part of the government’s ongoing effort to curb the rising cost of higher education, which has been causing trouble for students.

According to a recent survey by the job information portal Saramin, 7 out of 10 college graduates received student loans and borrowed an average of 14.45 million won ($13,100). The survey also showed that student loans affected some 45 percent of recent grads, who said they had accepted their first job offer in order to make money.

President Park Geun-hye pledged during her election campaign to implement a “half-priced college tuition” policy. It aims to curb tuition fee hikes or even gradually decrease tuition fees and expand the state-backed scholarship programs to halve the financial strain on students.

In October, the Education Ministry said the average student faced college tuition fees of 6.67 million won in 2014 ― a slight decrease from 6.68 million won in 2013. It claimed that while the figure was almost unchanged, the government’s scholarship programs had substantially reduced the burden for students.

A ministry official said that most colleges were expected to freeze or lower their tuitions, since through the “type 2” state scholarship program, bigger scholarships are given to students of colleges that cut their tuition fees most drastically.

But some have questioned the effectiveness of the government measures.

According to Rep. Cho Jeong-sik of the New Politics Alliance for Democracy, average tuition costs dropped by 4.6 percent in the first year the type 2 program was introduced, but the figure leveled off to 0.5 percent and 0.3 percent in 2013 and 2014, respectively.

Cho said the government should reassess the scholarship program as it was “hastily put together” and is failing to serve its purpose.

By Yoon Min-sik (minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)