1,200 Victims of College Application System Crash; Remedy Applications Open Today

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Last week, the college rolling admission application system crashed right before the deadline, leading to a one-hour extension of the submission period. It is estimated that about 1,200 applicants failed to complete their applications. While the Ministry of Education has introduced relief procedures, backlash continues from applicants who completed their submissions on time.

Reporter Jang Seon-i has the details.

[Reporter]

At 5:50 p.m. on September 11, an error occurred on the server of Uwayapply, an agency handling college rolling admission applications.

Ten minutes before the deadline, submissions and payments were blocked for 30 minutes, returning to normal only at 6:20 p.m.

The Korean Council for University Education extended the deadline from the originally scheduled 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. for universities.

The Ministry of Education estimates that out of approximately 2.61 million rolling admission applications, about 1,200 applicants were unable to finish submitting due to the system failure.

Remedy applications will be accepted on the Uwayapply website starting from 9 a.m. today (September 14) until 6 p.m. on September 16.

After verifying digital records, eligible applicants will be notified individually, and those who receive notification can submit their applications until 10 p.m. on September 16.

To qualify for relief, applicants must have a record of accessing Uwayapply and writing or saving their application during the time of the disruption.

Cases where applicants urgently applied to a different university instead of their intended choice because the server was blocked are also included in the relief measures.

However, changing the applied department is not permitted.

The problem lies in the extended one hour.

Some universities released their final competition rates according to the original 6 p.m. deadline.

Applicants who submitted their applications during the extended time were able to apply after checking these competition rates.

This is why applicants who finished their submissions earlier are protesting that they suffered a disadvantage in rolling admissions, where last-minute strategic maneuvering often determines success or failure.

The Ministry of Education stated that it is also looking into cases of new applications submitted to universities that exposed their competition rates during the extended period, and that it will take additional measures if unfairness is confirmed.

The Ministry of Education and the Korean Council for University Education have launched an investigation into the cause of the failure and announced that they will request a police investigation depending on the findings.

(Video Editing: Park Ji-in)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.