`3 No` Education Policy Faces Partial Abolishment

The Korean Council for University Education, which began supervising university admission this year for the first time, yesterday mentioned the possibility of abolishing two of the “three no’s,” or policies banning universities from managing their own admission exams, ranking students based on high school, and accepting donations for student admissions, introduced by the previous administration.

The council also said the university admissions framework could undergo changes from next year, including the introduction of an admissions officer system.

“There may be a public backlash against universities taking donations in return for student admissions. There is, however, a consensus that allowing universities to rank students based on high school and manage their own admission exams will not cause social disruption,” said council secretary-general Park Jong-ryeol.

“Students can choose their high schools from next year, and by 2012, when they have to apply for universities, the ban on evaluating students based on high school could become meaningless in the end.”

Park added, “This means when students choose their high schools, there is much room for universities to consider the characteristics of each high school. We have organized a task force within a working-level committee on college admission to conduct research on 2011 admissions while considering what to do with the policy of the ‘three no’s.’”

“We will have the large framework when we announce the research findings in the general assembly Jan. 15.”

Park said universities should establish their own admissions standards after 2011, with the findings of the task force to point to a similar direction.

On the dispute that over essay admissions exams at certain universities might violate the second “no” forbidding schools from managing their own admissions exams, he said, “Universities agreed to respect the ‘three no policy’ until 2010, and they must do so. Nonetheless, the council is in no position to make an issue out of it since the Education, Science and Technology Ministry abolished its guideline on essay exams.”

The council also announced admission plans for 2010, including the abolishment of the system of early admission in the first semester and expanding the adoption of the admissions officer after collecting admissions outlines of four-year colleges. The number of students to be admitted will be reduced by 336 to 378,141 a year. Of the number, 57.9 percent or 219,024 will gain early admission while 42.1 percent or 159,117 will be admitted at the end of the year. The number of universities with admissions officers will jump from 16 with a combined 321 officers this year to 49 and 4,376 next year.

A college admissions expert said, “The council hinted at the partial abolishment of the ‘three no policy’ and the Education Ministry is going over ways to reduce the number of exam subjects beginning in 2012. We are likely to experience drastic changes to the admissions system in two to three years’ time.”

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