By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter

The government said it will allow universities full autonomy in picking students from 2013 on the condition that social consensus is reached.

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said Friday that consensus among the public is essential for the abolishment of the ``three No'' admission policy ― No to ranking high schools, No to running their own admission exams except for essay tests and No to taking donations for admission.

It also made it clear that it will intervene in admission policies, backpedaling from its previous pledges to leave schools to set admission policies.

The announcement came after recent turmoil over admission policies of some private universities. Korea University, a prestigious private school, is suspected of having favored students from foreign language high schools. Students who were denied admission and their parents are claiming that the university graded applicants according to name value of high schools.

Yonsei University recently said that it will conduct its admission exam from 2012, drawing protest from some civic and parent groups.

Eum Sang-hyun, a senior official dealing with university policy at the ministry, said the government will take a ``cautious approach'' to the issue.

He said government officials will be represented in a committee on charting admission policies. Officials from universities and other private education officials will also be members of the body.

``It's not right that the admission policy will be fully liberalized from 2012. Some universities are confusing parents,'' Eum told reporters. ``The committee will seek a social consensus. Universities will get full autonomy in picking up students starting from 2103 once social consensus is reached.

He said the National Assembly will make a final decision on the participation of government officials in the policy-setting committee, the Korean Council for University Education (KCUE).

The KCUE, currently comprised of presidents of universities, is looking into ``unfair admission'' accusations at KU and will decide whether the accusation is true or not this month.

Some university professors said the government should leave schools to decide on their own admission methods.

``I don't really understand why Korea needs to control university admission. In the United States, universities have freedom to choose students they want,'' said Robert Dickey, a professor at Gyeongju University in North Gyeongsang Province. ``However, I think it's better for Korean universities not to run their own admission exams so that they can look at more than test scores when recruiting students.''

kswho@koreatimes.co.kr