South Korea to penalize universities for over-recruiting students

South Korea's Ministry of Education is set to enhance its management of university admissions after several institutions exceeded their enrollment quotas. This move follows an incident where Soonchunhyang University's medical program admitted 11 students more than its allocated number for the 2026 academic year.

The ministry plans to revise its guidelines for handling excess admissions and unfilled spots. Universities found to have intentionally or through gross negligence over-recruited students will face stricter consequences. These may include demands for disciplinary action against responsible personnel and disadvantages in government financial support programs.

For the 2026 academic year, a total of 191 students were over-recruited across various universities. Of these, 135 were admitted due to admitting all students with the same score at the cutoff line, while 56 were due to university errors. In the 2025 academic year, 135 students were over-recruited, with 82 attributed to university mistakes. Common causes for such errors include mistakes during the selection of waitlisted candidates or miscalculations in allocating spots for special admission categories.

While students admitted through over-recruitment will retain their admission status, the affected universities must reduce their enrollment quota for the same program in the subsequent academic year by the number of excess students admitted. Soonchunhyang University, for example, will have its 2028 medical program quota reduced by 11 students. The ministry aims to minimize such occurrences starting with the 2027 admissions cycle by implementing its own investigations and potentially referring cases of significant over-recruitment to law enforcement.

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When over-recruitment occurs, the enrollment quota for the following academic year is reduced, which adversely affects students in subsequent admission cycles. We will carefully monitor and manage admissions to minimize over-recruitment in the future.