Court’s Conflicting Decision on Canceling Foreign School Graduates’ College Admission

The court made conflicting decision in regard to the canceling of foreign school graduates’ college admission.

Seoul District civil court 6 ruled in favor of a student named Lee (20) who sued a women’s university for canceling her admission because she had graduated from a foreign school.

Lee`s ruling is expected to set a precedent, as there are more pending cases. For instance, female pop dance group ‘S.E.S’ Shu (Yoo Soo-Young) and Yoo-Jin (Kim Yoo-Jin), ‘Shinwha’s Andy (Lee Sun-Hoo, 19) also sued universities for the same reason.

The court said, ‘Graduates from ‘K’ foreign school is not recognized by the law. However, it is discrimination against constitutional equal rights not to recognize Korean graduates of foreign school, while foreign graduates of foreign school is recognized’.

The court also said, ‘The universities argue that to admit graduates from foreign school is unfair to other Korean students who have gone through intense competition. However, this issue should be solved through the reform of foreign school revision bill’.

The court added that ‘Given the consideration that Lee will be hurt in terms of study and personal integrity if Lee had to stop studying, the court need to protect Lee’s right to study in a university’.

On the contrary to this ruling, Seoul District civil court 50 ruled against Lee (D University, 23) who applied for the provisional disposition against the university for the same reason. The court turned down Lee’s application saying ‘College admission is invalid to the student whose high school scholarship is not recognized by the law.’

Lee Jung-Eun lightee@donga.com