▲ Song Geun-hyun, Director General for University Policy at the Ministry of Education, briefs on the results of measures regarding system failures during the application process for the 2027 academic year early admissions at the Government Complex-Sejong on September 17.
A total of 414 appeals have been recognized as eligible for relief regarding the system failure that occurred during the application period for the 2027 academic year early college admissions.
Among them, final relief has been confirmed for 354 cases.
The Ministry of Education held a briefing today (September 17) to announce the results of measures taken regarding the application system failure.
The Ministry received a total of 1,588 relief applications up until yesterday (September 16), recognizing 414 of them as eligible for relief.
The Ministry of Education and the Korean Council for University Education recognized cases as eligible for relief only if computer logs verified the error records from 5:50 PM on September 11, when the failure occurred, along with the applicant's attempts to draft, save, submit, and pay for the application in question.
The universities where relief was granted numbered 40, spanning 306 recruitment units and admission tracks.
By university, Kyungpook National University had the most with 72 cases, followed by Kyung Hee University with 51 cases, Chung-Ang University with 48 cases, Chonnam National University with 27 cases, Kookmin University with 26 cases, and Inha University with 18 cases.
The Ministry of Education stated that there were a total of 39 instances of applicants applying to universities that disclosed competition rates while the application deadline was extended by one hour.
Among them, there were 3 cases where applicants checked the competition rates before applying to the respective universities.
Deeming that these cases risk seriously undermining fairness among applicants and the integrity of college admissions, the Ministry has recommended that the universities in question cancel the applications.
The Ministry emphasized that changes in university competition rates resulting from this relief effort are minimal.
The average competition rate for the 40 universities where relief was granted rose slightly from 9.634 to 1 to 9.635 to 1.
The total number of college application submissions increased by 354, from 2,554,259 to 2,554,613.
The overall competition rate also increased from 9.801 to 1 to 9.802 to 1.
The Ministry explained that there was no concentration of relieved applicants in specific recruitment units or admission tracks.
The Ministry of Education has formed a special investigation team to examine the exact cause of this incident, the response process, and the system operation and management framework.
An on-site inspection of UwayApply is also underway.
Based on the issues identified in the investigation, the Ministry plans to take necessary measures after reviewing relevant laws and contractual relationships.
In addition, the Ministry decided to improve the stability of the application system and the management and oversight framework to prevent similar failures from recurring starting from the regular admissions for the 2027 academic year.
Plans to overhaul the system into a public application framework are also under review.
Minister of Education Choi Kyo-jin stated, "While rescuing affected applicants based on objective factual evidence and computer data, we prioritized fairness and equity to ensure that no disadvantages are inflicted on applicants who successfully completed their applications normally."
(Photo: Yonhap News)
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