Education Minister Lee Ju-ho thanked heads of national universities for deciding to freeze tuition fees in the 2025 academic year following government request, amid an apparent push for a hike among private institutions.

At a meeting with heads or acting chiefs from seven of nine national universities in attendance on Monday, Lee said the tuition freeze is viewed as an invaluable decision aimed at expanding higher learning opportunities for youths and bolstering the public nature of university education.

The minister pledged enhanced efforts toward helping to ease universities' financial difficulties and improving the quality of higher learning.

Lee also checked up on national universities' financial situations and listened to ways to support their sustainable development and innovation.

The minister asked the universities to actively communicate with students at their medical schools following a yearlong collective action in protest of health care reforms, to persuade them to return and to normalize medical education.

Emphasizing that the government is open to going back to the drawing board on the medical school admissions quota hike for the 2026 academic year, the minister promised state efforts toward swiftly finalizing the quota expansion.