Parents clash with university over disputed study program

By Kim Bo-eun

Parents of students who were accepted into Chung-Ang University on a course involving overseas study are in a dispute with the school about whether the foreign study component will be reinstated, after it was ordered to be cancelled in December last year by the government.

The “1+3 Overseas Study Program,” introduced in 2009, required students to complete one year at a local university and the remaining three years of study at an overseas school to earn a bachelor’s degree.

However, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology ordered 20 private universities across the nation to shut down the programs in November, citing that they did not comply with the Higher Education Law. Chung-Ang abolished their program the following month.

Some 50 parents occupied the president’s office Monday afternoon, staging a sit-in and calling for the school to reinstate the program.

“Some 240 students were accepted for the program last December and have even paid the tuition, but the school is just sitting back, ignoring the issue, saying the shutdown was a government order,” said one parent.

The shutdown of the program triggered a strong backlash because it came after schools had finished selecting students for the 2013 academic year.

The Seoul Administrative Court accepted a filing by a group of parents to suspend the shutdown of the program, Tuesday. The court had earlier rejected a filing by a single parent.

On Monday, the court accepted the same injunction applied for by parents of students at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (HUFS).

“The school has yet to announce its stance on the issue, but it will make an effort to serve the students’ best interests,” a school official said.

The education ministry said it would make an appeal and take adequate measures to improve the original lawsuit.

Parents at Chung-Ang met with school officials earlier on Tuesday to discuss the issue but the school maintained its stance that it cannot revive the program.

“The school said it would provide the alternative of allowing students to sit in on classes for their first year, but parents are refusing to accept this,” said one official who declined to be named.

“It is unacceptable that students, who were accepted through legitimate procedures, not be enrolled as regular students,” said another parent.

Students for the program are selected by overseas schools. Chung-Ang and HUFS have been offering the program with California State University and the State University of New York, respectively.

Therefore, students applying for the program do not take the Korean college entrance exam. Nor do they take the American SAT.

“We cannot speak about the specifics of the admissions process, because all of it is done between the overseas schools and the students. Chung-Ang and other local universities just assume the role of managing the students in their first year,” said the official.

According to him, the students belong to the overseas schools once they are accepted into the program, and therefore pay their entire tuition fees to that school, starting their freshman year.

The education ministry ordered a halt to the program, citing that it was illegitimate, because students were enrolled in domestic schools but did not receive degrees from them.

The high costs of attending the overseas schools, and the seemingly loose admissions criteria, have also been cited as providing an easy way for children of rich families to obtain an overseas education.