[Editorial] Irresponsible admissions policy at Korea University

Posted on : 2009-02-02 12:52 KST Modified on : 2009-02-02 12:52 KST

It has become difficult for Korea University to avoid being held suspect for using a system of ranking high schools in one of its rounds of “general selection” (ilban jeonhyeong) admissions for the 2008 academic year.

According to documentation researched and now released by the office of Democratic Labor Party member of the National Assembly Kwon Young-ghil, a student who scored at the 8th level in their high school performance at Incheon Foreign Language High School passed the first round of Korea University’s general selection process, after the university said it would choose students based on their performance in high school, using grades and other determiners for 90 percent of what gets considered, and allowing “comparative factors” (bigyogwa yeongyeok) such as volunteering to account for 10 percent.

At Daewon Foreign Language High School, which has a total of 443 students, some 212 applied for admission to the university and 190 passed the first round of the general selection procedure, while 189 out of the 320 students who applied for admission to the university from the 429-student Daeil Foreign Language High School passed. So a student from a regular high school could perform in the top two levels and still fail to win a place at the university, while another student at a foreign language high school could be in the 5th or 6th level, or even the 7th or 8th level, and still get in.

University officials protest the accusations, saying they were fair, but no one is going to believe that at face value. Teachers and parents have demanded an explanation from Korea University since it announced the results of that round of selection last October, and the Korean Council for University Education, which since the start of the Lee administration has been in charge of university admissions, performed an inquiry into the matter.

Korea University was forgetting its proper role as an educational institution to announce that it was choosing people according to their high school performance while in fact doing what was for all practical purposes a “special selection” (teukbyeol jeonhyeong) of students from special purpose high schools (teuk mok go). It abandoned that most basic element of education: trust. You have to worry what students will learn at a university that, desiring some shallow benefits, deceived Korean society so it could choose students with slightly better test scores.

Such is the situation and yet the KCUE is acting even more pathetic for doing nothing but giving unpersuasive excuses, like saying that it has no real means to take action against Korea University, despite the situation. It goes even farther and argues against the “three nos” in education policy: no giving donations in exchange for admissions, no additional entrance exams and no ranking high schools by academic performance. At the end of last year, KCUE’s general secretary actually said that society is likely to reach the consensus that “there would be no social confusion if universities were left to determine for themselves whether to abolish the prohibition on ranking high schools and allowing universities to give their own individually-tailored entrance exams.”

There is no such consensus. Ranking high schools is having students judged by the performance of those who graduated ahead of them. It is unfair and not right to say you are going to discriminate against students based on the schools they attend, this without doing anything to alleviate the disparity in the quality of schools in different regions. KCUE, therefore, needs to take firm action against Korea University. Otherwise, it needs to admit that it lacks the ability to officiate university entrance procedures independently of the government and wash its hands of everything to do with university admissions. It is irresponsible to just go on demanding autonomy without carrying out its responsibilities to the fullest.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]

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