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Despite hospitalizations and traffic accidents, students still forced to attend university chapel classes

Published: 09 Dec. 2025, 10:32 Updated: 09 Dec. 2025, 18:38

A mandatory chapel lecture is being held at Ewha Womans University's main hall on April 4, 2011, western Seoul. [YONHAP]

“I was in a traffic accident, had a concussion and a cast on my leg, but because the accident happened the day before chapel, not on the same day, my medical absence wasn’t accepted.”

This post, uploaded on Nov. 25 to the university community app Everytime, has reignited a longstanding controversy over mandatory chapel classes at some mission schools.

At Ewha Womans University, where completing chapel courses for eight semesters is mandatory for graduation, a number of students have shared complaints and personal experiences on the app.

One junior student said she was rushed to a university hospital emergency room in November 2023 after experiencing sudden chest tightness and losing her voice. She was hospitalized in an isolation ward and even required a blood transfusion, but the school still refused to acknowledge her absence from the chapel held at 10 a.m. that day.

“I collapsed, vomiting blood, after the blood vessels in my nasal passages burst,” she said in an interview on Nov. 27. “I was taking about 18 pills a day, but I still attended the make-up chapel the following week.” She added, “Even after submitting proof of hospitalization and discharge to the chapel office, I was told only the death of an immediate family member or a confirmed Covid-19 case would be recognized. Being sick already felt like the sky was falling — what hurt even more was the school telling me they couldn’t accept my absence over something like that.”

When the JoongAng Ilbo asked the chapel office at Ewha for clarification on the attendance policy, it declined to comment.

A woman prays while reading the Bible at a church in Daegu on Nov. 10. [NEWS1]

Some students have been forced to delay graduation or stack multiple chapel sessions — up to four of the same lecture in a week — to fulfill the requirement. Posts on Everytime have even included offers to pay 20,000 won ($14) for someone to attend the chapel session in their place.

While Ewha enforces chapel attendance for eight semesters, other schools such as Yonsei University and Myongji University require four semesters to graduate. According to the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, 80 percent of universities in Korea are private, and more than 30 percent of those are affiliated with religious organizations. Many of these schools operate chapel programs in line with their founding religious principles. In reality, however, the original intention has given way to large-scale gatherings in auditoriums focused mainly on checking attendance.

Religious freedom — for the school or the students?

Debates over mandatory chapel attendance have persisted for years. In 2005, students at Yonsei University held solo protests against the requirement. In 2007, students at Soongsil University filed a constitutional petition claiming it violated their freedom of religion. That March, the Constitutional Court dismissed the petition, stating that the Minister of Education was not legally obligated to regulate chapel programs and that government intervention was not warranted.

The National Human Rights Commission has issued multiple statements — in 2021, 2022 and again this February — arguing that making chapel attendance a graduation requirement infringes on students’ religious freedom. In response, the Communion of Churches in Korea argued that it was not students’ religious freedom being violated, but rather the religious freedom of Christian-affiliated universities that was under threat.

Still, experts say chapel programs should be made more flexible.

“Large-scale, centralized chapel services have limited effectiveness,” said Ham Seung-soo, a professor at Myongji University’s Graduate School of Education. “With more nonreligious students on campus, schools need to implement their founding values in ways that feel less imposing — through small group chapels or mentoring, for example.”

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY LEE AH-MI [[email protected]]