SNU student's admission revoked for false credentials

SNU School of Dentistry revoked admission of a student who was admitted partly due to research papers which her mother, a former professor at Sungkyunkwan University, forced her students to draw up on behalf of her daughter. Korea Times file

By Kim Hyun-bin

The Seoul National University (SNU) School of Dentistry has revoked the admission of a student who submitted a ghostwritten research thesis. The research paper was actually composed by graduate students who were studying under the student's mother, then a professor at Sungkyunkwan University.

The school said Tuesday it had canceled the admission of the student following recommendations by its admissions management and graduate school committees, with SNU President Oh Se-jung giving final approval.

The irregularities were found during a special investigation by the Ministry of Education, which asked the prosecution to investigate the case further and requested Sungkyunkwan University to dismiss the professor, surnamed Lee.

Lee was arrested in May for obstruction of school affairs and Sungkyunkwan University also dismissed her in June. Her daughter was also indicted without physical detention on the same charge.

According to the prosecution, Lee allegedly ordered her graduate students in 2016 to conduct animal experimentation for her daughter's paper. The following year, Lee allegedly ordered them to write a research thesis based on the findings.

The thesis was published in a renown medical journal.

Lee's daughter only participated in the experiments two or three times, but was listed as one of the authors. She submitted it to several medical associations and was awarded prestigious accolades, and these awards were the key credentials for her acceptance to SNU's School of Dentistry.

However, this was not the first time Lee ordered her students to do her daughter's projects. The daughter won an outstanding young scientist award with a thesis written by the students when she was in high school, and in 2014 she was accepted to a private university through the fraudulent achievements.

During a first hearing last month, Lee admitted to getting help from her graduate students for her daughter's papers, but claimed receiving support doesn't mean the daughter did anything fraudulent, denying the charges filed against them.