'We can't trust the ministry's claim that only 3 applied after checking competition ratios'

About 50 attend first rally; fairness dispute expected to continue

Song Geun-hyeon, director general of university policy at the Ministry of Education (third from left), greets reporters after briefing them on the results of relief measures taken in response to a system failure that disrupted online applications for the 2027 academic year early admissions cycle, at Government Complex Sejong on Thursday. [Yonhap]
Song Geun-hyeon, director general of university policy at the Ministry of Education (third from left), greets reporters after briefing them on the results of relief measures taken in response to a system failure that disrupted online applications for the 2027 academic year early admissions cycle, at Government Complex Sejong on Thursday. [Yonhap]

Some university applicants and their parents took to the streets Saturday to criticize the Ministry of Education's handling of the system failure that disrupted online applications for the 2027 academic year early admissions cycle.

They argued that the ministry's decision to grant relief to students who failed to submit applications on time due to the technical glitch was unfair, and demanded that all applications submitted after the official deadline of 6 p.m. on Sept. 11 be canceled.

About 50 parents and students belonging to the "Student Solidarity for Fair Early Admissions" held their first rally outside the National Assembly on Saturday, according to Yonhap.

"Students who trusted the university admissions guidelines and submitted their applications before the deadline followed the rules as set," the group said. "Yet by allowing additional submissions after the deadline, a situation has arisen where students who did follow the rules may actually be placed at a relative disadvantage."

The group also rebuffed the ministry's explanation that the change in competition ratios resulting from the relief measures was no more than 0.001 percent. "In individual recruitment units, even a single additional applicant can mean the difference between acceptance and rejection," they said. "For an applicant, even the figure of 0.001 is never trivial."

The disruption began around 5:50 p.m. on Sept. 11 — about 10 minutes before the application deadline — when the Uwayapply online platform experienced errors for roughly 30 minutes, preventing some students from completing their submissions.

The Korean Council for University Education and the Ministry of Education extended the deadline by one hour. When it was confirmed that some students still could not submit applications even after that extension, the authorities launched a relief process.

A total of 354 students were ultimately granted relief.

'Students who met the deadline are now at a disadvantage'

A, 18, a high school senior who attended the rally, said his teachers and the university admissions guidelines had repeatedly warned students that servers could go down and that any resulting problems would be their own responsibility — and that the application window had been open for five days. "Despite all that, it makes no sense to grant relief to everyone who hadn't submitted their application right up until the deadline," he said.

Jeong, 49, whose daughter is a university applicant, said her daughter had submitted her application a day early and was furious. "She keeps asking, 'Does following the rules make you a fool?'" Jeong said. "In an exam, even being one second late is treated as cheating — so why should this be any different?"

The group also said that 17 universities had publicly disclosed their competition ratios during the extended application window, putting students who had submitted their applications by the original deadline at a relative disadvantage.

The Ministry of Education identified three students who had checked the competition ratios at those 17 universities before applying and recommended that the universities cancel those students' applications.

The group, however, argued that computer records alone cannot determine whether a student applied after checking competition ratios.

For instance, a family member or friend could have checked the ratios and passed the information along, allowing a student to apply without ever logging in to check the figures themselves.

B, 18, who attended the rally with two friends, said posts were piling up on student online communities from people saying they had checked the competition ratios before applying. "We can't trust the ministry's claim that it was only three people," she said. "There are many ways to obtain competition ratio information, so you can't draw conclusions from computer records alone."


newday@heraldcorp.com