Korea National University of Arts (KNUA), which had admitted a college applicant who was a school violence perpetrator, issued an official apology, calling it "a clear mistake by the school."
President Pyeon Jang-wan of KNUA said at the full meeting of the Culture. Sports. and Tourism Committee at the National Assembly on the 28th, in response to related questions from ruling and opposition lawmakers, that "we should have been alert to the issue of school violence and reflected it in admissions, but we failed to do so."
Pyeon said, "Most universities this year established screening standards for school violence in their admissions processes and applied them, but our school, as a national university, overlooked this," adding, "It is a clear mistake that we failed to follow basic and common social norms and values."
He said the Admissions Policy Committee will strictly deliberate on Dec. 4 whether to grant admission to the student in question and will set up a rigorous system.
Earlier, KNUA came under fire after it became known that it had admitted an applicant who had received a level 4 school violence disposition. This disposition is a disciplinary measure corresponding to community service and is recorded in the student record.
The Ministry of Education made it mandatory starting this year to reflect school violence measures in college admissions, but KNUA, as a national university under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, reportedly did not apply the guideline.