During the 2027 academic year early admissions, the deadline was extended due to a system failure at the application agency, and the government decided to give applicants who could not finish submitting their applications a chance to apply.
Test-takers and parents who finished submitting their applications raised fairness concerns, saying applicants may have changed their target universities or departments after checking the final competition rates during the extended hours.
Uway Apply began accepting relief applications at 9 a.m. on the 14th. The relief application period runs until 6 p.m. on the 16th. Eligible applicants are test-takers among the applicants to 56 universities handled by Uway Apply, which had been scheduled to close at 6 p.m. on the 11th, who have logs showing attempts to submit or pay.
Once a relief application is filed, Uway Apply will check the log records and, after a university review, determine whether the person is eligible for relief. The Ministry of Education estimates up to about 1,200 people may qualify. Those selected as eligible can submit their early admission applications until 10 p.m. on the 16th.
Uway Apply said, "You can apply only for the same admission track and recruitment unit as shown in the log records," and noted, "If the log records differ from the admission track or recruitment unit, the application will be canceled and cannot be resubmitted."
◇ Key issue: possibility of changes during extended hours after seeing final competition rates
The trigger was a failure that occurred around 5:50 p.m. on the 11th in Uway Apply's application system. With just 10 minutes left until the deadline, a surge in users and conflicts between programs caused the system to freeze. It was not restored until about 6:20 p.m., roughly 30 minutes later.
The Ministry of Education and the Korean Council for University Education (KCUE) extended Uway Apply's application deadline by one hour to 7 p.m. under the "failure response manual." Jinhaksa, which had closed normally, also accepted additional applications from 6:32 p.m. to 7 p.m. Because some students did not know about the extension, the government moved to accept relief applications.
The problem is that some universities' final competition rates were exposed during the extended application time. On the deadline day for early admissions, universities disclose real-time competition rates twice, at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., and then announce the final competition rates right after the 6 p.m. deadline.
Some universities did not receive the KCUE notice about the extension and released the final competition rates by track and department at 6 p.m. as planned, then took down the notices. This suggests applicants may have adjusted their target universities or departments during the extended application time after checking the final rates.
◇ Amid fairness controversy, a National Assembly petition and even calls for a "joint lawsuit"
As the fairness controversy grew, test-takers and parents who finished early admission applications early pushed back against the deadline extension and additional relief.
On online communities for test-takers, posts criticized the move, saying, "Students who applied early are the ones who will be hurt," and "How can they extend it in such a slapdash way?" Some even said, "Shouldn't we at least file a group (joint) lawsuit?"
A National Assembly petition was also filed seeking standards that would bar applicants from newly applying or changing admission tracks or recruitment units after final competition rates are released.
A deputy director at a college prep academy in Gangnam District, Seoul, said, "In an admissions environment where early admission competition rates are calculated to the decimal point, even if the number of people eligible for relief is small, test-takers cannot help but react sensitively."
The Ministry of Education and KCUE said they will identify the status of new applicants at universities where competition rates were exposed during each school's extended application period and will also devise measures for unfair cases.
◇ The "agency system" for college application submissions also under scrutiny
Uway Apply issued an apology in the name of CEO Seong Yoon-seok, saying, "We will do everything we can to become the safest and most trusted application submission service."
But the structure in which two private corporations effectively handle college application submissions also came under scrutiny due to this incident. Citing expense and other reasons, universities began outsourcing application submissions more than 20 years ago, and Uway Apply and Jinhaksa Apply now split the market.
Calls that the education authorities should operate the application system directly are emerging on online communities and social media (SNS). The Ministry of Education is investigating the cause of the application system failure and plans to request an investigation if necessary. It also plans to announce measures related to the overall application system.