Korean parents, students threaten legal action over college application outage

South Korean students and parents on Saturday demanded that the Education Ministry cancel any college applications submitted after the initial deadline, protesting the ministry's decision to grant relief to those unable to hand in their applications due to a system outage.

A group of high school seniors and their parents held a demonstration in front of the National Assembly, calling on education authorities to invalidate all applications submitted after the original deadline and arguing that the ministry’s relief measures failed to restore fairness.

The ministry said Thursday that 354 students were found eligible for relief after it reviewed 1,588 cases, through computer and payment records, to determine whether applicants had been unable to complete their applications because of the outage. It also recommended that universities invalidate three applications authorities found had been submitted under unfair circumstances.

The outage hit Uway Apply, one of Korea’s two major university application platforms, at around 5:50 p.m. on Sept. 11 — just 10 minutes before the 6 p.m. deadline for the 2027 early admissions cycle. The deadline was subsequently extended to 7 p.m.

The extension raised concerns that applicants who had not completed their submissions by 6 p.m. could see which university programs were more or less competitive before deciding where to apply.

Because applicants are limited to six applications during the early admissions cycle, critics argued that students who saw the competition rates could have redirected an application to a less competitive program.

Protesters at the parliamentary compound said extending the deadline itself put applicants who had completed their submissions before 6 p.m. at a disadvantage.

The Education Ministry rejected that argument.

“There is nothing that says students who submitted their applications earlier are at a disadvantage,” Education Minister Choi Kyo-jin told the National Assembly’s Education Committee on Wednesday.

Another ministry official told Yonhap News Agency on Saturday that achieving complete fairness in resolving the fallout would be difficult.

Demonstrators also criticized the ministry’s decision to recommend invalidating only three applications.

The ministry said its inspection of computer records identified three cases in which students submitted applications after the original deadline after checking competition rates. Protesters argued that the figure was likely conservative because computer records alone could not always establish whether an applicant had viewed competition rates before submitting an application.

The student and parent group told reporters Saturday that it was “preparing a legal suit,” including reviewing a possible damages claim against the Education Ministry.

Calls for broader changes to the early admissions system are also growing.

People Power Party lawmakers on the National Assembly’s Education Committee said they would hold an emergency meeting Monday “to ensure fairness in the college application process and to protect college applicants.”

Officials from the Korean Council for University Education and the Education Ministry, as well as parents, are expected to attend.

The Education Ministry is also considering taking a more direct role in overseeing the early admissions application process.

Applications are currently handled by private companies Uway Apply and Jinhak Apply.

During an interpellation session at the National Assembly on Sept. 14, Choi said the government would review whether the Education Ministry and the KCUE should directly administer the application process.

Song Geun-hyun, head of the ministry’s university education policy division, told reporters Thursday that the ministry was reviewing ways to improve the system and ensure fairness for future applicants, including stronger government administration and oversight.

The Education Ministry, the KCUE and the Korea Advancing Schools Foundation have also launched an investigation into Uway Apply.

The ministry said it would thoroughly inspect the company’s application system and consider further measures, including filing a lawsuit and requesting a police investigation.