Recommendation to Cancel 3 Applications Submitted After Checking Competition Rates Amid Persistent Fairness Controversy

[Anchor]

As you know, disruptions in the college application system last week led to an extension of the deadline. Controversy over unfairness has arisen because some universities disclosed their competition rates during this extended period. The Ministry of Education has confirmed that three applications were submitted after checking these competition rates and has recommended that the universities in question cancel them.

Reporter Park Seyong has the details.

[Reporter]

On September 11, the servers of a college application agency went down, prompting a total of 100 universities to extend their application deadlines by one hour to 7:00 PM.

Among them, 17 universities published their competition rates during the extended period.

The core of the controversy is that submitting applications after viewing this information gives applicants an unfair advantage over others.

The Ministry of Education investigated 39 applications submitted to the 17 universities after 6:00 PM.

As a result, it was confirmed that 3 applications were submitted after looking up the disclosed competition rates.

The Ministry of Education has recommended that the respective universities cancel these applications.

While there is a possibility that the remaining 36 applications also viewed the competition rates in advance through methods other than the official website, the ministry stated that it is difficult to verify.

[Song Geun-hyun / Director General for University Policy, Ministry of Education: For the remaining 36 cases, no such records remain in the system. We cannot rule out the possibility that competition rates were checked through alternative routes, but since the Ministry of Education cannot verify those parts....]

A total of 1,588 remedy applications were filed by students claiming they were unable to properly submit their applications due to the system outage.

Out of these, 414 cases with access logs from the time of the disruption were recognized as eligible for relief, and 354 of them have completed additional applications.

It is estimated that the 60 cases that did not complete additional applications gave up after seeing the final competition rates, which could also fuel further controversy over fairness.

Some test-takers and parents claim that only students who submitted their applications in advance are disadvantaged, and they have announced plans to hold a rally in front of the National Assembly on September 19.

(Camera: Lee Jae-young | Video Editing: Kim Jong-mi | Design: Hwang Se-yeon)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.