South Korea’s association of universities on Monday apologized over a system outage that disrupted applications for the 2027 early admissions cycle, pledging relief measures for affected applicants.
Lee Ki-jeong, president of the Korean Council for University Education, said in a statement that he felt “a heavy sense of responsibility and deep regret” for the anxiety and confusion caused to students and parents at the final stage of the application process.
“For applicants who were unable to complete their applications normally, we will work with the relevant universities to establish reasonable and fair relief procedures based on objective facts and verifiable records,” Lee said.
He added that the council would ensure that any remedial measures do not undermine fairness among applicants or the integrity of the admissions process.
“Our top priority is to make sure that no applicant suffers an unfair disadvantage as a result of the system failure,” he said.
The disruption occurred Friday at 5:50 p.m., just 10 minutes before the application deadline, when users encountered access problems on Uway Apply, one of the country’s major university application platforms.
The council said it would review the stability of the application system and its emergency response procedures, working closely with the Education Ministry on broader structural improvements where necessary.
Uway Apply CEO Seong Yun-seok also apologized to applicants, parents and universities, saying the company was taking the incident seriously and would investigate the cause while strengthening its emergency response system to prevent a recurrence.
seungku99@heraldcorp.com
