President Park Geun-hye’s flagship education policy of “half-price” college tuition is facing skepticism from experts over the lack of long-term financial resources to sustain it.

During a New Year’s press conference, Park vowed to finalize the policy this year. The president claimed that by expanding the state-backed scholarship programs, coupled with college scholarship programs, students’ financial burden would effectively be halved.

But officials from the Korea Higher Education Research Institute said the government’s tactics to keep tuition costs low relied heavily on pressuring local colleges, rather than providing financial support.

“The Park administration claims that the 3.9 trillion won ($3.6 billion) in state scholarships and 3.1 trillion won provided by colleges will result in ‘half-price tuition.’ But there is no guarantee that the colleges will continue providing the same amount of money,” the KHERI said in a report released last week.

One of the major incentives to reduce tuition was the type 2 scholarships ― bigger scholarships given to students of colleges that cut their tuition fees most drastically. But the KHERI said the government had substantially cut the budget for type 2 scholarships, raising the possibility of hikes in tuition fees.

As of now, most of the burden on keeping tuition fees from soaring falls on colleges, he said. This means the government has no effective means to continue restraining colleges.

Most major colleges nationwide have announced, or plan to announce, a tuition freeze for this year. This appears to be a decision influenced by Education Minister Hwang Woo-yea’s constant pleas to refrain from raising fees.

Last week, Hwang visited Ewha Womans University, the first major university to announce a large-scale tuition hike. On the day of Hwang’s visit, the university said it was reversing its initial stance, and would freeze its tuition fees.

The abrupt reversal led those in education circles to believe Hwang’s visit was likely to have pressured the school against raising tuition fees.

“The university committee is currently discussing the matter. But with the government breathing down our necks, who would dare raise tuition? I think we’ll freeze it like most other colleges,” said one official from a Seoul-based university.

On the other hand, unspoken pressure from the authorities can only work for so long. According to the Education Ministry, the colleges’ average tuition fees fell 4.3 percent in 2012, but declined just 0.46 percent and 0.24 percent in 2013 and 2014, respectively.

This underscores another problem for the half-price tuition plan; it has not substantially reduced tuition itself, which means the financial burden remains steep for some students, even with the scholarship programs in place.

“The government must switch the current strategy and provide subsidies for colleges. That way, we can truly realize the half-price tuition,” KHERI official said.

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