Reform admissions

Suspicions are also building around Justice Minister Cho Kuk’s son after Yonsei University claimed it has lost all the scoring records on overseas student applicants for its graduate school where the young Cho attended from the first semester of last year.

Yonsei said it could not find three years of records when it faced a raid by prosecutors investigating any illegalities behind the way Cho got into higher education. Schools are required to preserve four years of score records on documental applications and interviews. Cho’s children have been accused of faking awards and certificates of internship. Some may think Yonsei could have destroyed the records for illegalities around Cho or the school’s wrongdoings related to admissions.

The three top schools dubbed SKY, referring to Seoul National University (SNU), Korea University and Yonsei University, exposed poor administrative management through the affair of the Cho children. Korea University failed to find fault in the record by Cho’s daughter cited as the first author to a highly sophisticated medical report during an internship in high school. It initially lied about the mention of the medical research in her papers.

SNU cannot explain why the Graduate School of Environmental Studies paid Cho’s daughter’s scholarship that she had not asked for from the school she only attended for a single semester. The dean of the graduate school had to apologize for the affair for paining other students.

SNU’s Center for Public Interests and Human Rights Law also cannot verify the false internship certificates issued to Cho’s son. The elite schools have betrayed and crushed many students who have worked hard to get into their dream schools. Some of the insiders have abused their status to do favors for their children.

SKY universities all put “truth” in their motto. SNU carries Veritas lux mea, meaning truth enlightens me. Korea University names liberty, justice and truth as its motto and Yonsei University uses a book and torch representing truth and freedom as its school symbol.

The schools must reform their admission and administrative systems to uphold justice and truth. The Education Ministry announced that it will launch an investigation on the admission practices of 13 universities. To ensure a better future for the academy and students, the investigations must root out foul play at universities.

JoongAng Ilbo, Sept. 27, Page 30