Criticism was raised at a parliamentary audit of the National Assembly's Education Committee that Seoul National University's law school is not properly operating a blind review system when selecting successful applicants.
Rep. Baek Seung-ah of the Democratic Party of Korea said at the audit held at the National Assembly on the 16th that 94 of the 152 students who won final admission to the Seoul National University law school this year came from the university itself, and took issue with the school's distinctive format for academic transcripts.
Unlike other universities, Seoul National University issues transcripts in landscape format. Baek said the appearance of the document alone allows reviewers to identify which university an applicant attended, defeating the purpose of a blind review.
"Does Seoul National University really have to make its format stand out and differ from other schools just because it is a bit different, because it considers itself special?" Baek said. "One glance and it is obvious that Seoul National University is Seoul National University. What kind of blind review is that?"
On the fact that the transcript format had not been revised despite being raised at last year's audit as well, Seoul National University President Yoo Hong-lim said the matter "is still in progress and we have also submitted a proposal to the Council of Law Schools."
Baek said the law school sets the weight of qualitative review in admissions as high as 40% while failing to provide proper official guidance on it. "Because universities do not disclose information they ought to disclose, students end up paying money to buy it," she said. "If differences like this emerge from the very start of admissions preparation depending on access to information and financial circumstances, can students accept this as fair competition?"
In response to Baek's demand that the school disclose the point allocations for individual items in the qualitative review and the method of awarding scores, Yoo said, "I will make a request and check on it."