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Sookmyung Women's University students are up in arms after the school imposed a dress code during its "festival week."
Sookmyung, one of the county's top women's universities, said: "No showing cleavages, no fishnet clothes, and no see-through clothes." It also banned all "sexual clothing."
The guidelines, uploaded to the school's website, entailed fines for violators.
The notice sparked immediate controversy, with many students saying the school was being heavy-handed and prudish. Others said such festivals had become too risque.
The festivals, a tradition at many Korean universities, involve students selling makgeolli or beer. They use the proceeds for school activities or donate the money to charity.
A festival poster featuring an image of a promiscuously dressed woman in a maid's uniform fanned the uproar.
Festivals at other universities have become the subject of debate as well.
Female students were seen wearing extremely short pants and tight uniforms at Seoul's Konkuk University, trying to attract people to their drinking booths.
"It definitely draws attention; it catches more eyes," a Konkuk student told Yonhap News Agency. "But it reminds me of a butcher's shop, or even a red light district."
"We're just carrying on the concept that our seniors did in the past," a Konkuk art student said."The professors did say something about our clothes, but we needed something special to make us stand out among the other departments."
Female students of the arts school wore a revealing flight-attendant uniform, and high-heels.
"Students have grown up watching K-pop girl groups dressed in a way that is in between music and pornography," said Professor Cho-Han Hye-jung of Yonsei University's cultural anthropology department.
"This has led them to think that wearing such exposing clothes is not problematic at all, and that this is rather something cool, instead of a matter of concern."
