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University faces backlash over freshman orientation attendance policy

Published: 07 Mar. 2025, 16:48

WOO JI-WON
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A revised announcement a department at a university in North Jeolla issued in response to the growing criticism. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

A private university in North Jeolla is facing backlash after one of its departments announced that freshmen who fail to attend a school event could face disadvantages, including restrictions on scholarships.

According to local news agency Yonhap, the department recently posted an announcement about the school orientation for freshmen, scheduled to take place from March 13 to 14.

In the announcement, the department's school council said that, as the orientation is an official school event, attendance would be recorded, and those who do not participate could be excluded from receiving scholarships from both the university and external sources.

The announcement also mentioned that students would be required to pay a participation fee of 70,000 won ($48), which would cover transportation, accommodation, alcohol and snacks.

The notice sparked criticism among students, with some saying, “They can’t force us to participate” and “On what grounds are they making us attend?” Others expressed concern that the school was not considering individual circumstances and was unfairly restricting scholarships based on event attendance.

Amid growing criticism, the department’s school council issued another announcement, explaining that attendance at the orientation would now be recorded as behavior points, rather than class attendance, revising the previous notice. It also noted that refunds would be issued if the collected fees exceeded actual expenses.

However, the restriction on scholarships remained in place.

When the criticism persisted, the department clarified in a phone call with Yonhap that orientation attendance would not affect academic grades and that there had been “a misunderstanding during the announcement.” The department’s dean also clarified that professors, who determine students’ grades, have “never penalized students in attendance or behavior points for missing orientation.”

“It is also not true that students will be excluded from receiving scholarships,” the dean told Yonhap. The department dean said that although the university’s need-based scholarships, which consider financial circumstances and volunteer activities, take school event participation into account, "it is just one of many evaluation criteria."

Forcing freshmen to attend school events such as orientations or retreats has long been a controversial practice at some universities in the country. Reports of upperclassmen pressuring freshmen to participate and even forcing them to drink alcohol have surfaced repeatedly over the years.

In an effort to curb such practices, the Ministry of Education in 2019 urged universities to ensure that school events are conducted responsibly.

Specifically, the ministry advised schools to keep freshman orientations to a single day, if possible, and to design programs that align with their original intent — providing new students with essential information to help them adjust to university life.

BY KIM JI-HYE, WOO JI-WON [[email protected]]