Early-Admission Application System Outage Heads to Parliamentary Audit; UwayApply CEO Selected as Witness

[Financial News]  The outage of the college early-admission application system on the 11th has become a subject of parliamentary scrutiny.
The National Assembly Education Committee selected Sung Yoon-seok, CEO of UwayApply, which operates the application system, as a witness for the parliamentary audit on the 29th. At the Oct. 12 parliamentary audit of KCUE, the committee is expected to closely question officials about the cause of the system outage and follow-up measures taken after the application deadline was extended.
The committee held a full meeting that morning and, by agreement between the ruling and opposition parties, approved a motion requesting the attendance of 19 witnesses, including CEO Sung, and four reference witnesses at the parliamentary audit.
The parliamentary audit of KCUE will begin at 10 a.m. on Oct. 12. The audit will cover 10 public institutions and three related organizations.
Sung was selected as a witness because of the system outage that occurred on the 11th, shortly before the deadline for early-admission applications. The outage disrupted application submissions for some students, prompting universities to extend their deadlines.  After accepting requests for relief, a total of 354 additional applications were ultimately submitted. Some universities disclosed their admission competition rates during the extension process, sparking controversy over fairness.
The Ministry of Education and KCUE are conducting a special investigation into UwayApply. The parliamentary audit is expected to address not only the direct cause of the computer system outage but also the company's system management and response to the incident, KCUE's management and oversight, and the process of providing relief to students after the application deadline was extended.
Witnesses were also selected in connection with other education-related issues. Lee Boo-hwan, CEO of Hanwha Aerospace, was included on the witness list over the controversy surrounding the 'experienced-hire recruitment guidelines.'
Cho Jung-sik, known as a 'star lecturer,' was also selected as a witness. The committee is expected to question Cho about allegations of illicit exam-question trading.
Heo Wook, vice president of Meta Korea, and Jae Hoon Jung, CEO of ByteDance, were also selected as witnesses. They are expected to be questioned about problems arising from adolescents' use of social media, including the so-called 'Yacha Rule,' as well as measures to prevent such problems.
Seungje Jeong, a well-known math lecturer, was selected as a reference witness. The committee plans to hear Jeong's views on the integrated mathematics system for humanities and science tracks, which will be introduced starting with the 2028 College Scholastic Ability Test.


[email protected] Lee Bo-mi Reporter