University Professor Dismissed for Allegedly Fabricating Overseas Teaching Experience... Court Says “No Guidelines, Unjust”

[The Financial News] A court has ruled that the dismissal of a university professor who had been appointed based on what the school claimed was fabricated overseas university experience was unjust.
According to the legal community on the 18th, Presiding Judge Lee Jung-won of the Seoul Administrative Court’s 5th Administrative Division ruled against the plaintiff last November in a lawsuit filed by the Hongik Foundation against the Appeal Commission for Educators seeking to overturn its decision.
Hongik University appointed Mr. A as an associate professor for the first semester of 2020. Later, in August 2023, Hongik University dismissed him, claiming that he had been appointed by improper means because he falsely stated that he had worked for about 15 years as full-time faculty at a foreign university, even though he had never served there as full-time faculty.
Mr. A filed an appeal with the Appeal Commission for Educators seeking to have the dismissal revoked, and the commission decided to cancel the dismissal. It found that, although the overseas university where Mr. A worked did not officially have positions corresponding to full-time faculty ranks in Korea such as assistant professor or associate professor, the position he held was part of the track required to be appointed as a full professor at that institution, and therefore could not be regarded as falling short of full-time faculty status.
In response, the Hongik Foundation filed an administrative lawsuit seeking to overturn the decision of the Appeal Commission for Educators.
However, the court found that all of the commission’s determinations were reasonable and dismissed the Hongik Foundation’s claim.
The court pointed out that, because the faculty system at the overseas university where Mr. A worked differs from that of Korea, it is impossible to clearly distinguish whether his position was full-time or part-time. The court stated, “The university’s job announcement neither defines the criteria or concepts for distinguishing between full-time and part-time faculty experience, nor does it provide any guidelines regarding overseas experience,” and added, “From Mr. A’s perspective, he could have reasonably believed that experience equivalent to that of an assistant or associate professor in Korea would qualify as full-time faculty experience.”
The court also held that Mr. A’s academic achievements and authority could not be considered inferior to those of full-time faculty, and that there were no circumstances indicating that the statements in his personal statement were false.
theknight@fnnews.com Jung Kyung-soo Reporter