"Trying to Inherit Privileges" Controversy Over 18 Admitted Under Yonsei University's 'Democratization Admission'

Yonsei University 'Democratization Movement Admission' 18 Accepted
Civilians Criticize as "Trick to Maintain Privilege"
Opposition Points Out "Unfair Admission," Questions "Did They Fight and Bleed for Special Treatment?"
Ruling Party Proposes Bill for 'Democratization Merit Family' Benefits

Main Gate of Yonsei University Seoul Campus. / Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy reporters Han Seung-gon and Kang Joo-hee] Since the Moon Jae-in administration, it has been identified that 18 freshmen were admitted through the 'Democratization Movement Related' category in Yonsei University's early admission process, raising concerns about fairness.

Additionally, as it has been confirmed that the opposition party recently proposed a bill to grant benefits to democratization movement veterans and their families equivalent to those of the April 19 Revolution and the May 18 Democratization Movement veterans, some citizens have criticized this as 'excessive benefits.'

On the 6th, Kwon Sang-do, a member of the National Assembly's Education Committee from the People Power Party, disclosed the 'Status of Yonsei University's Democratization Movement Related Opportunity Equalization Selection' submitted by the Korea Council for University Education. According to this, Yonsei University's Seoul campus admitted 15 students in 2020 from 2018 to this year, and the Mirae Campus (Wonju) admitted 3 students, totaling 18. Among them was also a successful applicant to the Department of Dentistry.

Yonsei University has an opportunity equalization selection process as one of its early admission methods, which allows applicants such as independence patriots, national merit recipients, May 18 democratization veterans, and children from multi-child families to apply. Since the 2012 academic year, people who participated in the democratization movement and their children have also been eligible to apply under this selection. The university added the children of democratization movement participants to the opportunity equalization selection category during the Lee Myung-bak administration in 2011.

The data disclosed by Assemblyman Kwon shows the number of successful applicants and their departments from 2017 to 2020 for the Seoul campus and from 2014 to 2020 for the Mirae campus. According to this data, the number of students admitted through the democratization movement category significantly increased in the 2018 admission cycle, which was after the Moon Jae-in government took office.

In the 2017 academic year, 3 students were admitted in total: 2 in Seoul and 1 in Wonju. In the 2018 admission cycle (conducted at the end of 2017), 10 students were admitted to the Seoul campus and 2 to the Wonju campus, marking a significant increase. In 2019, 4 students were admitted to the Seoul campus and 1 to the Wonju campus, and most recently in 2020, 1 student was admitted to the Department of Dentistry at the Seoul campus.

At that time, one student was admitted to the Department of Dentistry through the opportunity equalization selection, and it was reported that the successful applicant had applied under the democratization movement related qualification.

Upon learning of this, some netizens raised criticisms of 'excessive privileges.' Netizens commented, "What does university admission have to do with the democratization movement? This is too much. This is why people call for the abolition of early admissions," "Is it fair to admit students just because their parents participated in the democratization movement?" and "Is there a defined scope or specific criteria for who qualifies as a democratization movement related person?"

Some also criticized that the activist generation, which has become the establishment, is trying to pass on their influence to their children. One netizen said, "Korea is still a society where academic background is highly valued. Many students work hard and sweat to get into good universities," adding, "But they only shout about equality, fairness, and justice in words while actually using tricks to maintain their own privileges."

Kwak Sang-do, member of the People Power Party./Photo by Yonhap News

Assemblyman Kwon, who raised the issue, also stated in an interview with JoongAng Ilbo, "The existence of the democratization movement related selection means that the democratization related selection itself acts as a privilege for the children of the 386 and 586 generations in prestigious university admissions," and added, "If the opportunity equalization selection acts as a channel for inheritance of privilege for a specific class that the public cannot sympathize with, despite its name, it can only be seen as an opportunity imbalance and unfair selection."

On the 7th, Ha Tae-kyung, a People Power Party lawmaker, wrote on his Facebook, "It is very excessive that Yonsei University grants admission privileges to children of democratization movement figures," and said, "I also participated in student movements in the 1980s, but I never sought privileges, and the entire generation at that time were democratization movement figures. To put it bluntly, who hasn't participated in the democratization movement back then? But granting admission privileges only to some of them is excessive unfairness and cheating."

Ha continued, "We didn't take to the streets and bleed to receive privileges, right? We went to prison and fought to eliminate privileges and special rights. The democratization forces have recreated a world without privileges. It's shameful and embarrassing," strongly criticizing the situation.

On the 7th, during the Ministry of Education's audit by the National Assembly's Education Committee, Assemblyman Kwon demanded that Yonsei University President Seo Seung-hwan disclose who the parents of the democratization movement related successful applicants are. However, President Seo responded, "Due to the Personal Information Protection Act, personal information cannot be disclosed," and "Besides admission documents, personal information cannot be disclosed without the individual's consent."

President Seo further explained the selection process, saying, "There are 7 to 8 categories eligible for the opportunity equalization selection, and one of them is democratization movement related," and "Applicants from various categories are evaluated and selected in a blind manner, without knowing their names or paths, based on student records and other criteria." He emphasized that the selection was based on student records among all applicants for the opportunity equalization selection, not giving special treatment only to democratization movement related applicants.

The ruling party rebutted the controversy, expressing incomprehension. Woo Won-shik, a Democratic Party lawmaker, appeared on MBC Radio's 'Kim Jong-bae's Focus' on the 9th and said, "This is not about honoring those who went to prison for democratization, but about limited support for those who have lifelong damage or scars. I don't understand why this is causing controversy."

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party proposed a bill to provide various benefits such as employment, medical, and financial support to the spouses and children of democratization movement veterans.

On the 23rd of last month, Woo and 20 other ruling party lawmakers proposed the 'Act on the Treatment of Democratic Patriots.' The bill aims to grant benefits equivalent to those for the April 19 Revolution and May 18 Democratization Movement veterans to those recognized by the government as injured or deceased during student movements or labor union activities and their children.

Specific benefits include ▲children of democratization veterans receiving support for middle, high school, and university tuition; ▲one of the veteran or their bereaved family members being able to borrow money from the government at long-term low interest rates for housing purchase and business; ▲children of those who died during the democratization movement receiving a 10% additional score, and children of those injured receiving a 5% additional score when applying to public and private enterprises; and ▲priority supply of public and private housing over the general public.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.