Around 400 to Receive Relief Due to Early Admission System Failure...Final Tally to Be Announced This Afternoon

1,400 Cases Reviewed out of 1,588 Applications
388 Recognized, 188 Still "Under Review"
Final Results Expected This Afternoon

The final number of students to receive relief due to the system failure during the 2027 university early admission application period is expected to reach the 400s.

As of the morning of September 17, the education authorities had completed the review of 1,400 out of 1,588 relief applications and recognized 388 cases as eligible for relief. The remaining 188 cases are still under review. If the current approval rate continues, the total number of students to be granted relief is expected to reach 440.

According to the Ministry of Education, a final tally of relief applications following the early application system failure had not been released as of this morning. The ministry stated that a detailed review was required, and the final figures would be announced later in the afternoon.

The Ministry of Education said that a total of 1,588 applications had been submitted by the close of the relief registration at 6 p.m. the previous day. Of these, 1,400 had already been reviewed, and—excluding duplicate applications—388 were recognized as eligible for relief. The remaining 188 cases are under further examination.

Among the 1,400 cases reviewed, the approval rate for relief was 27.7%. If this ratio is simply applied to the remaining 188 cases, approximately 52 additional cases would be approved, bringing the final number of relief cases to around 440. If all 188 outstanding applications are recognized, the number could increase to a maximum of 576. However, a Ministry of Education official commented, "It is unlikely that the final rate will differ significantly from the current ratio."

The Ministry of Education and the Korean Council for University Education are determining eligibility for relief by reviewing electronic records from the time of the system malfunction. At 5:50 p.m. on September 11, when the failure occurred, applicants must have an error log, along with a record of having written, saved, submitted, or attempted to pay for an application to the university in question. If there are multiple submission records, only the last version written or modified will be recognized.

Although the authorities acted quickly to manage the unprecedented crash during the early application period, confusion over follow-up measures has persisted. Notably, when the application deadline was extended by an hour from the originally scheduled 6 p.m., 17 universities made public their admissions competition rates as of the original 6 p.m. cut-off, triggering a controversy over fairness.

A parent commented, "I was relieved to see my child's chosen university's competition ratio was 3.91 to 1 at the 6 p.m. deadline, but after the one-hour extension, 20 more applicants joined and the final ratio jumped to 5.91 to 1. It seems that students who submitted their applications early are at a disadvantage, so I question whether this can really be called relief."

Parents' associations argue that students who submitted their applications in good faith suffered due to repeated deadline extensions and relief measures, and are demanding that the education authorities be held accountable. Some teachers' groups also pointed out that, in light of this incident, the current system, which relies on private companies, should be replaced with a state-run public application platform. The Ministry of Education and the council plan to inspect the cause of the failure, the response process, and the overall system operations and management to establish measures to prevent recurrence.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.