South Korea's education budget will rise 10.6% next year to a record 117.6 trillion won ($85 billion), with large new investments aimed at strengthening regional universities, helping young people find jobs and training artificial intelligence talent through a newly created future response fund.
The Ministry of Education announced the 2027 budget plan on the 1st. The total is 11.24 trillion won higher than this year's main budget of 106.36 trillion won. By category, 89.74 trillion won is allocated to early childhood and primary and secondary education, 18.97 trillion won to higher education, and 1.41 trillion won to lifelong and vocational education.
The most notable feature of the plan is the education and talent account within the new future response fund. The account is funded with 4.93 trillion won, of which 526.9 billion won goes to early childhood education and care, 2.35 trillion won to regional and youth support, and 2.06 trillion won to training AI talent. Many of the new programs — from support for regional universities to first job experiences for university students and expanded research facilities at private universities — will be financed from this fund.
In the regional and youth category, regional national universities will for the first time receive large-scale funding that the institutions themselves can decide how to spend. The ministry will create a 691 billion won fund for talent development at regional national universities and distribute it as block grants to 21 institutions. Universities will invest the money at their own discretion, including on strengthening teaching and research, in line with their medium- and long-term development plans. Flagship national universities will receive an average of 50 billion won each and other national universities an average of 20 billion won. The innovation budget for flagship national universities will also grow to 794.4 billion won from 648.7 billion won.
Support that goes directly to students will also increase. A new 465 billion won "university student first career project" will fund practicum semesters for 60,000 students at four-year and two-year colleges. Participants will receive 2.3 million won a month in practicum support and 100,000 won a month in participation costs, allowing them to gain real work experience before entering the job market. A scholarship program for balanced regional development will be expanded and restructured to 328 billion won to cover tuition for 60,000 freshmen at regional national universities, while the number of recipients of regional talent scholarships at private universities outside Seoul will rise to 10,000 from 4,000.
In AI and the sciences, the focus is on building up teaching infrastructure at universities. The ministry will spend 600 billion won to build laboratories and research facilities at about 40 private four-year and two-year colleges with science and engineering departments tied to regional growth engines and strategic industries. Another 207 billion won is set aside for an "AI second leap universities" program, under which about 40 universities and colleges will offer roughly two-year AI convergence courses to some 20,000 adult learners. A 30 billion won program will also be created to provide block funding to universities in the basic sciences and the humanities and social sciences.
For primary and secondary education, local education grants will rise by 7.2 trillion won to 78.87 trillion won from 71.67 trillion won this year. Free early childhood education and care will be extended to 3-year-olds, from ages 4 and 5 previously, with the related budget increased to 642.9 billion won.
"The 2027 budget plan reflects a strong commitment by the state to take responsibility for education and for training the talent of the future, in response to the challenges of our time — low birth rates, regional decline and the great AI transition," Education Minister Choi Kyo-jin said.
