Admissions Officer Scheme Baffles Schools, Students
By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter
President Lee Myung-bak's remarks that admissions officers will pick all freshmen at many universities around the end of his term has thrown schools, students, parents and private cram schools into confusion.
"I expect a considerable number of universities to pick 100 percent of their new students through the admissions officer system by the end of my tenure," Lee said during his radio speech Monday. His term ends in February 2013.
His comments mean that major universities will scrap essay tests and other exams to pick students and instead admit students picked by admissions officers.
"It's out of the question that all schools, parents and students will be ready for full implementation of the admissions officer system within the next three to four years," an official at Kyung Hee University said.
Most school officials in charge of recruitment said that students should be given at least three years of advance notification for a change in the admission system. If Lee's plan is put into practice as he hopes, each school should announce the framework of the new system this year.
"Universities need to have enough time to thoroughly research the admission system and develop it in accordance with parents and students," an admissions officer at a Busan-based university said. "It's not something to be pushed hastily."
Boosted by the authorities' drive for the introduction of admissions officers, universities which will receive government subsidies for the introduction of the system plan to pick about 6 percent of the total quota of 350,000 at 47 universities across the nation for the 2010 school year. They will increase the portion in phases but to raise it to 100 percent over the next three to four years will be impossible, they say.
Concerns Over Side-Effects
At the same time, the Lee administration has trumpeted that it will let schools determine the way they pick students. Lee's remarks viewed as signs that the government will push the system harder providing subsidies as bait run counter to the government's liberalization drive.
"We basically support the expansion of the admissions officer system. But what matters is to secure transparency and fairness in the system," the Korean Teachers and Education Workers' Union said in a statement. "Any hasty or enforced implementation of the system, without sufficient discussions and research, will backfire and cause huge adverse side-effects."
Mindful of the criticism, Vice Education Minister Lee Ju-ho told reporters that schools will in principle decide how to pick students alongside the admissions officer system which will be implemented slowly.
"The authorities will be careful about the speed of the introduction of the admissions officer system," Lee said. "(Lee's remarks) do not mean that 100 percent of schools will adopt the system but all students can apply for it."
Most Korean universities so far have picked students based on test scores, especially the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), which is responsible for rising private tutoring costs. Admissions officers are fully committed to accessing applicants based on their potential and extra-curricular activities as well as recommendations of principals and teachers rather than just academic scores.