Inducing University Admission Reform... 75 High School Education Contribution Universities Selected

Participation Possible Only if CSAT Admission Quota Set at 30%
Continuous Support Universities and Performance Management Universities Selected through Midterm and Additional Evaluations
External Public Auditors Must Participate or Evaluation Process Must Be Recorded and Preserved

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Jinju] The Ministry of Education will support 75 universities with 55.9 billion KRW by simplifying the college admission process and evaluating fairness and transparency standards to operate a fair and transparent college admission system. This year, universities that set the proportion of the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT)-oriented admission at 30% will also be eligible for support.

On the 5th, the Ministry of Education finalized and announced the basic plan for the 2021 High School Education Contribution University Support Project. This project standardizes the college admission process and encourages universities to simplify their admission procedures to reduce the burden on students and parents, evaluating their performance and providing support accordingly.

Since the implementation of the support project, admissions with a high private education burden, such as essay and special talent admissions, have decreased, while the scale of regional talent-related admissions has steadily increased. Universities classify their admission types as ▲student record-based (student record curriculum) ▲student record-based (comprehensive student record) ▲CSAT-oriented ▲practical skills-oriented ▲essay-oriented, and disclose them in admission announcements.

The participation condition for the support project is to secure a 30% proportion of CSAT-oriented admissions. Some universities must adjust the CSAT admission ratio to 40% by 2023. These schools are 16 universities where comprehensive student record plus essay-oriented admissions account for 45% or more of the recruitment quota. They are Konkuk University, Kyung Hee University, Korea University, Kwangwoon University, Dongguk University, Sogang University, University of Seoul, Seoul National University, Seoul Women’s University, Sungkyunkwan University, Sookmyung Women’s University, Soongsil University, Yonsei University, Chung-Ang University, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, and Hanyang University. Regional universities must submit plans to adjust the proportion of student record curriculum or CSAT-oriented admissions to 30% as a participation condition.

This year, a mid-term evaluation of last year’s project performance and this year’s project plan will be conducted to designate universities that fall below the benchmark score (Type 1) and performance management universities (Type 2), determining whether to continue support. Only Type 1 universities will undergo an additional selection evaluation that assesses this year’s project plan and next year’s college admission implementation plan. Universities that fail the mid-term evaluation and new applicants will compete in a public contest to determine re-selection. Finally, universities will be selected as ▲continuing support universities ▲performance management universities ▲new support universities. Among these, performance management universities with insufficient mid-term evaluation results will receive consulting and be managed accordingly.

The project budget for performance management universities this year cannot exceed the 2020 budget, and the specific reduction scale will be decided by the project steering committee. A ‘professional consulting team’ composed of the University Education Council and external experts will provide consulting, assign implementation tasks related to the causes of poor performance, and verify achievement during next year’s performance evaluation.

To strengthen fairness in college admissions, the Ministry of Education will apply the ‘College Admission Transparency Enhancement Support Project’ to all universities participating in this project and use it as a mid-term evaluation indicator. Universities must carry out at least one of the following tasks in one or more recruitment units: involve external public evaluators in the evaluation, allow external observers to attend the evaluation process, or record and preserve the evaluation process.

Additionally, the evaluation will cover the operation of avoidance and exclusion systems for admission-related personnel, criteria for admission cancellation upon confirmation of fraudulent admission materials such as ghostwriting, plagiarism, or false information, relaxation of eligibility requirements such as age and graduation year, implementation methods and results of blind evaluation in the admission process, and procedures for handling detected prohibited entries.

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