Students applying for early admission to South Korean universities for the 2027 academic year filed an average of 4.96 applications each, up slightly from a year earlier. A total of 428 students exceeded the cap of six applications, prompting the Korean Council for University Education to instruct universities to cancel the filings.
According to the council's findings on early admission application counts for the 2027 academic year, released on the 15th, 527,717 students applied to 210 general universities nationwide, including branch campuses, filing a combined 2,614,903 applications. The average of 4.96 applications per student was up 0.07 from 4.89 for the 2026 academic year.
The review was based on application data collected from July 6 to Sept. 16. The council compiled filing records from each university to analyze how many applications each student submitted and to check for violations of admissions rules.
The analysis found 428 students had exceeded the limit. Under current admissions guidelines, students may file up to six applications during the early admission round. Any application beyond the sixth, in order of receipt, is not recognized, and admission is voided if a student is found to have enrolled in violation of the rule.
Industrial universities, junior colleges, universities established under special legislation and admissions tracks with unrestricted schedules are exempt from the cap. Applications to those schools or tracks do not count toward the six-application limit for early admission at general universities.
The council instructed the universities involved to notify the 428 students of the violations and take necessary steps, including canceling their applications.
The council said it would also check for violations of application and enrollment rules in the regular and supplementary admission rounds for the 2027 academic year. "We ask students to be careful about rule violations such as applying in the regular or supplementary rounds after being accepted in the early round, filing multiple applications within the same group in the regular round, applying in the supplementary round after enrolling through the regular round, and simultaneous enrollment at two universities," a council official said.