Busan National University Cancels Admission of Cho Kuk's Daughter to Medical School: "Based on Appeal Court Ruling on False Credentials"

Grounds for Cancellation Are the Freshman Admission Guidelines... 'Failure if Facts Differ' Specified
Decision on Admission Cancellation to Be Finalized After Follow-up Procedures Like Hearings
Pusan National University: "Appellate Court's Judgment Does Not Violate Presumption of Innocence"
Disposition Outcome May Change If Supreme Court Ruling Is Overturned
Pusan National University: "False Credentials Listed Were Not a Major Factor in Admission Decision"

Park Hong-won, Vice President of Pusan National University, announced the investigation results related to admission allegations at the main building of Pusan National University.
Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Jinju] Pusan National University has decided to cancel the admission of Cho Min, the daughter of former Minister of Justice Cho Kuk, to the medical school.

On the 24th, Pusan National University announced the results of the investigation and review of Cho's 2015 medical school admission process.

Park Hongwon, Vice President of Education at Pusan National University, said, "After comprehensively reviewing the Admission Fairness Management Committee's internal investigation report, the appellate court ruling on Professor Jeong Gyeongshim, and the opinions of the relevant departments, we have decided to cancel Cho Min's admission to the 2015 medical school and will proceed with the subsequent administrative procedures."

The admission cancellation announced that day is a 'preliminary disposition decision' under the Administrative Procedures Act and will be finalized after subsequent procedures.

Vice President Park explained, "Once the preliminary disposition is issued, the party subject to the disposition will be notified, and at the same time, the hearing procedure will be conducted. The remaining process includes the hearing procedure and the final administrative disposition decision, which will take about 2 to 3 months."

Pusan National University had been investigating allegations of falsified documents submitted by Cho during the admission process through the Admission Fairness Management Committee since April, and concluded with the cancellation of admission after four months.

Vice President Park explained, "The Fairness Committee did not make an independent judgment on whether the Dongyang University president's certificate was included, the admission documents were falsified, or whether the internship at Kongju National University, internship at KIST, and research assistant experience at Dongyang University were false, but directly applied the appellate court ruling on Professor Jeong Gyeongshim of Dongyang University."

He added, "The Pusan National University Fairness Committee reported that the experience listed by Cho was not considered a major factor for acceptance, but the university headquarters judged that the influence of the applicant's submitted documents on acceptance could not be a reason for consideration when deciding whether to cancel admission. At that time, the freshman recruitment guidelines stated that if the submitted documents contained false information, the applicant would be disqualified," explaining the reason for cancellation.

He continued, "Only the recruitment guidelines clearly stated that if the listed information was false, the applicant would be disqualified, and there were no relevant regulations in the Higher Education Act or Pusan National University regulations at that time. However, we believed that the university headquarters should also comply with the content required of students," he explained.

Pusan National University reflected the content of the '7 major specs' deemed false in the appellate court ruling of Professor Jeong Gyeongshim, Cho's mother. Since a trial regarding the forgery of admission-related documents was already underway, the university explained that it applied the court ruling.

Vice President Park said, "Initially, since the applicant's admission documents were subject to criminal trial, we stated that it would be appropriate to take administrative action after the Supreme Court ruling in respect of the presumption of innocence principle to be respected in criminal trials. However, after comprehensive review of the appropriate timing for administrative action, we judged that even the appellate court, the final fact-finding trial, does not violate the presumption of innocence principle."

He added, "If the Supreme Court ruling is overturned, the administrative disposition result may also change. We will review the ruling's intent as soon as the Supreme Court decision is made."

Pusan National University further explained that the main factors for passing the document screening were Cho's grades from her previous university and her official English test scores rather than the false experiences she submitted.

Vice President Park explained, "In the document evaluation, among the 30 candidates who passed the first document screening, Cho ranked 19th, her previous university grades ranked 3rd, and her official English test scores ranked 4th. In her self-introduction letter, the content mainly focused on medical volunteer activities and did not cite the (false) experiences or the Dongyang University certificate."

The Pusan National University Fairness Committee is an organization that monitors the admission process, but this is the first time it has decided to cancel an admission like in Cho's case. Vice President Park said, "The decision to cancel admission is an unprecedented case. There was intense debate within the Fairness Committee about whether to cancel or maintain the admission, and opinions were divided. In this situation, rather than concluding by vote, it was judged appropriate to delegate the decision to the university headquarters," he added.

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