After Yoo Dam, the daughter of former Bareun Party lawmaker Yoo Seong-min, was eliminated in the first screening for a tenure-track faculty opening at the University of Incheon, it emerged that the university halted the hiring process even though there were other applicants.
According to Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Jin Sun-mi on the 30th, Yoo applied for a tenure-track position in international business in the School of Business Administration at the University of Incheon for the spring 2025 semester but failed the first screening due to incomplete documents.
The listing specified that applicants must hold a doctoral degree or be expected to receive one, and it was determined that Yoo was excluded from the first screening for failing to submit the relevant documents.
The University of Incheon then halted the tenure-track hiring process. A memorandum stating the reasons for non-recommendation at the time noted, "Among 18 applicants, four were confirmed not to hold a Ph.D. in business administration, and only two met the requirements in the document review." The school said it resolved to suspend the review "because there were only two valid applicants, making it difficult to proceed with the hiring review."
Yoo reapplied for a tenure-track opening in the Department of Trade at the University of Incheon for the fall of the same year and was accepted. The international business field in the School of Business Administration, which Yoo had previously applied to, reportedly did not proceed with a separate hiring process afterward.
Jin said, "The University of Incheon conducted five tenure-track recruitments in international business in the Department of Trade over the past 12 years, but did not hire in four of them, citing a lack of suitable candidates, and then appointed Yoo," adding, "We requested materials from the previous four recruitment processes, but the school refused to submit them, saying the records had been lost."
In response, the University of Incheon said, "It is true that Yoo failed to win the tenure-track position in international business," but added, "As this matter is currently under investigation, it is difficult to provide a detailed position."
Police, who accepted a complaint related to Yoo and launched an investigation, recently executed a search warrant for the Department of Trade office at the University of Incheon and elsewhere.
After graduating from the law department at Dongguk University, Yoo earned a master's in business administration from Yonsei University and a Ph.D. in business administration from Korea University. Since Oct. last year, Yoo has been teaching two elective courses in international business in the Department of Trade at the University of Incheon.