The National Assembly's Education Committee focused on chronic administrative opacity and poor management systems during its audit of Seoul National University (SNU), national hospitals, and public universities in the Seoul metropolitan area. Lawmakers criticized the opaque admissions process at SNU's law school, allegations of cronyism in auditor appointments at SNU Hospital, and online exam cheating at Korea National Open University involving artificial intelligence.
On October 16, the Education Committee conducted its 2026 audit of SNU, Incheon University, Korea National Open University, and six other public universities, as well as SNU Hospital and SNU Dental Hospital. University and hospital leaders, including SNU President Yoo Hong-rim and SNU Hospital Director Baek Nam-jong, attended the session, where lawmakers raised concerns about the transparency and public accountability of university and hospital operations.
Seoul National University Law School's Admissions Process Criticized
The first issue addressed was the lack of transparency in the admissions process at SNU's law school. Democratic Party lawmaker Baek Seung-ah pointed out that over 60% of admitted students each year are SNU alumni. She noted that while the school claims to conduct blind evaluations to prevent bias based on applicants' alma maters, the unique horizontal format of SNU's transcripts makes it easy to identify the school. "What kind of blind evaluation is this? It's time to change the transcript format immediately," she urged.
Baek also highlighted that the qualitative evaluation, which accounts for 40% of the admissions process, lacks transparency. She stated that her request for average qualitative evaluation scores by applicant's alma mater has been denied for a year, citing concerns that it could discourage applicants due to "distorted information."
In response, President Yoo stated that the format of transcripts is determined autonomously according to university regulations but assured that efforts would be made to ensure fairness and that the requested data would be re-requested from the law school.
Concerns Over Auditor Appointment at SNU Hospital
Lawmakers also criticized the lax personnel practices and safety management at SNU Hospital. People Power Party lawmaker Seo Beom-soo raised concerns about the appointment process of Oh Jeong-hoon, the newly appointed auditor at SNU Hospital. He noted that the application consisted of only four pages, with the job performance plan and personal statement each being just one page long, containing vague statements like "I am honest and loyal and will not betray." Seo questioned whether such a lack of diligence in documentation indicated that Oh was appointed through cronyism.
Seo demanded the submission of evaluation results for the candidates and their job performance plans from President Yoo, who also serves as the chair of the hospital's board.
Allegations of covering up patient safety incidents were also raised. Lawmaker Kang Kyung-sook pointed out that after the introduction of physician assistants, the number of falls in the second quarter surged to 124, while the hospital reported only 17 incidents.
Online Exam Cheating at Korea National Open University
Reform Party lawmaker Lee Joo-young exposed serious cheating issues in the online degree program at Korea National Open University's Prime College. He stated that all midterm and final exams are conducted online, with no controls in place to prevent cheating using AI tools like ChatGPT. He noted that online communities openly share tips on how to use screenshots to cheat, leading to a dramatic increase in perfect scores from 60 to 189 in just one year.
In response, Korea National Open University President Kim Jong-o stated that efforts are being made to implement technical measures, such as lockdown browsers, to maintain the integrity of online assessments.
Additionally, concerns were raised about the exclusion of metropolitan national universities from a program aimed at fully subsidizing tuition for regional national universities. Lawmaker Jeong Seong-guk emphasized that the location of a university should not justify overlooking equity among national university students.
In agreement, presidents of several universities, including Kim Dong-hwan of Seoul Tech University, Jang Shin-ho of Seoul National University of Education, and Kim Wang-jun of Kyongin National University of Education, stated that over 40% of their students come from non-metropolitan areas, arguing that excluding them based solely on location violates principles of fairness and called for reforms from the Ministry of Education.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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