College application portal chaos: Notification sent 39 minutes after deadline

KCUE texted universities at 6:39 p.m. to extend a 6 p.m. deadline

'Round-the-clock' response protocol went untested during outage

17 schools released competition ratios; 3 late applications flagged for cancellation

Education Ministry and KCUE wrap up special probe; system overhaul expected

The Korea Council for University Education headquarters in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, is seen Sept. 14. During the college application portal outage that disrupted the 2027 academic year early admissions cycle, KCUE sent universities a deadline-extension notice 39 minutes after the original cutoff. [Yonhap]

The Korea Council for University Education sent universities a deadline-extension notice 39 minutes after the original cutoff during the online application outage that disrupted the 2027 academic year early admissions cycle, it has emerged.

According to documents submitted to the office of People Power Party lawmaker Park Jeong-hun of the National Assembly's Education Committee, KCUE sent a text message to university admissions officers at 6:39 p.m. on Sept. 11, informing them of an extension to the application deadline.

The message said a server error with the Uwayapply platform had begun around 5:50 p.m. and that, to protect applicants' opportunity to submit their forms, KCUE intended to extend the deadline for universities originally set to close at 6 p.m. until 7 p.m. The notice went out 39 minutes past the original deadline, with just 21 minutes remaining before the extended cutoff.

A total of 116 universities had been scheduled to close applications at 6 p.m. that day. Of those, 100 extended their deadlines to 7 p.m., while the remaining 16 did not. KCUE operates an emergency response center during the application period and is required under its own guidelines to maintain a round-the-clock response system, yet 49 minutes elapsed from the time the outage began to when the extension notice reached universities. Education Minister Choi Kyo-jin was not informed of the outage until 6:43 p.m. — roughly 50 minutes after it began.

Choi had previously told the National Assembly's Education Committee that she would investigate why KCUE's notification to the ministry had been delayed. KCUE said it began consulting with the Education Ministry immediately after becoming aware of the outage and that it started arranging the extension and notifying universities from around 6:30 p.m.

Education Minister Choi Kyo-jin briefs the National Assembly's Education Committee on the status of and response measures to the college application system outage during a plenary session Wednesday. [Yonhap]

An Education Ministry investigation found that 17 of the 100 universities that extended their deadlines had disclosed competition ratios as of 6 p.m. during the extension period. A total of 39 applications were submitted to those universities during the extension window, from 38 applicants.

The ministry and KCUE identified three of those applications — completed after the applicants had checked the competition ratios — and on Thursday recommended that the universities concerned cancel those submissions. The remaining 36 applications showed no record of the applicants having looked up the ratios and were not flagged for cancellation.

Applicants have pushed back against that approach, arguing that direct browsing records alone are insufficient to determine whether someone accessed the competition data. They contend that ratios could have been shared through group chats or other channels, and that applications submitted after the ratios were made public could affect the admission prospects of students who had already applied.

A separate relief process was also carried out for applicants who were unable to submit their forms due to the outage. Of 1,588 relief applications received between Sept. 14 and Sept. 16, the ministry and KCUE recognized 414 as eligible for relief based on verified system records of attempts to fill out, save, submit or pay for applications. Of those, 354 applicants successfully completed their university submissions.

Discontent has persisted even after the relief process concluded. At a rally outside the National Assembly on Saturday and an emergency forum at the Assembly on Monday, participants demanded that all applications submitted after the original 6 p.m. deadline be canceled.

The Education Ministry said it has completed its administrative relief measures. A joint special investigation team from the ministry and KCUE has been conducting an on-site probe of Uwayapply since Wednesday and is set to wrap up that day. The findings are expected to determine countermeasures for the regular admissions application period and the direction of a broader system overhaul.

"The '24-hour emergency response system' spelled out in KCUE's own manual was simply not functioning on the ground, causing the organization to miss the critical window for early damage control," People Power Party lawmaker Park said. "We will hold the Education Ministry and KCUE strictly accountable for their failure to properly oversee and manage an application system that had been left in private hands."

brunch@heraldcorp.com