Freshman Enrollment at 20 Universities Falls Below 70%

Universities are struggling to attract freshmen due to the declining number of young people, with freshman enrollment at 20 universities falling below 70 percent.

A total of 367,955 freshmen enrolled at universities nationwide, leaving 22,430 spots (5.7 percent) unfilled.

According to The Dong-a Ilbo’s analysis of freshman enrollment data between 2004 and this year at 199 four-year colleges nationwide collected by ruling party lawmaker Kwon Young-jin, the average enrollment rate was 94.3 percent this year, down from last year’s 95.8 percent.

Things began to look up from 2004, when universities offered a smaller number of spots following restructuring, but freshman enrollment dipped again after schools increased their quotas this year.

While the number of freshmen enrolling at universities has more or less stood at 360,000 since 2004, the number of spots offered by schools declined from 411,561 in 2004 to 402,312 in 2005, 387,993 in 2006 and 384,738 last year.

Accordingly, the number of unfilled spots shrank from 48,136 in 2003 to 16,360 last year, but has gone up to 22,430 this year.

While national (96.6 percent) and private universities (95.6 percent) in the Seoul metropolitan area experienced little change in enrollment, the rate sharply declined in the majority of private universities outside Seoul (92.2 percent).

Schools located outside Seoul usually struggled the most in attracting freshmen, including Youngsan Sunhak University (14 percent), Kundong University (18.3 percent), Seonam University in Namwon (21.6 percent), Kaya University in North Gyeongsang Province (30 percent) and Hanlyo University (31.4 percent) in Gwangyang.

foryou@donga.com