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David D. Lee

It has been just over a month since Lee Hyun-jun* was discharged from his mandatory military service, but the 22-year-old college student already feels he has hit an invisible wall regarding his future.
“Whenever I search for jobs, internships or fellowship programmes on online platforms, they always ask for the name of your university,” Lee told This Week in Asia.
“Looking at the comments section, people are saying most places prioritise which school you graduated from. They say you might as well give up if you’re from a regional university outside Seoul.”
For the education major, who attends a university in the southwestern city of Gwangju, the remarks hit uncomfortably close to home.
“I thought that I would finally be able to live a life I wanted based on my skills and efforts, but I realised that society just gave you a rank that you had to wear longer than your time in the military.”
In South Korea, universities are broadly divided into two tiers: “in Seoul” schools and those outside the capital. At the top of the hierarchy is “SKY” – an acronym for Seoul National University, Korea University and Yonsei University – all based in Seoul.

Aside from a small number of elite science institutions such as the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in Daejeon, Seoul-based campuses are the most desirable.
Many high schoolers take the annual College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), known as Suneung, multiple times in hopes of entering one. Nearly 30 per cent of test takers are repeat examinees.
The fixation on academic pedigree is widely recognised. A 2024 poll by national broadcaster Korea Broadcasting System found that discrimination based on academic background was viewed as the most severe form of prejudice in South Korean society, receiving nearly 30 per cent of total votes.
Educators and policymakers warn that the intense competition over university admissions has fuelled chronic stress among children as young as seven, while also shaping broader social trends such as delayed marriage and declining birth rates.
Song In-soo, co-founder of the civic group Spring of Education, says the problem is rooted in how people are hired.
“The reason academic background carries such importance is because hiring practices have been centred around which school you attended. This is directly connected with which kind of job you can land,” he told This Week in Asia.
“People feel they must enter certain universities to acquire higher pay and stable employment.”

Pride and prejudice
A survey conducted by Spring of Education and pollster Realmeter in 2024 found that 85 per cent of respondents believed one’s alma mater influenced job applications, while 75 per cent said discrimination based on educational background was severe.
Last week, the organisation held a rally at the National Assembly Library to promote a bill aimed at preventing hiring discrimination based on academic background. About 400 people – including legislators, educators, parents and students – attended.
In his opening address, National Education Commission head Cha Jung-in said that “academic credentialism and the competitive system attached to the university hierarchy turns everyone into losers”.
“The proposed revision to the fair hiring procedure act seeks to prohibit the inclusion of applicants’ educational backgrounds in job-related documents,” Cha said. “It aims to evaluate candidates based on job-related competencies … to judge individuals according to their present abilities rather than fixating on their past.”
Although the bill has been formally introduced, it must still pass several legislative hurdles before reaching a final vote. While South Korea already prohibits discrimination based on educational background, critics argue that enforcement has been weak.

The broader consequences of the competition are visible across society. According to data from the statistics ministry, nearly 80 per cent of students are in private schools – an 11.2 per cent increase from 2015, spending an average of 7.6 hours a week and about 474,000 won (US$330) per month.
Total private education spending reached 29 trillion won (US$20 billion) despite a shrinking student population, while nearly half of children under six now attend private academies.
Mental health indicators have also raised alarms. In 2023, the suicide rate among those under 18 reached a record high of 3.9 per 100,000. Among 15- to 19-year-olds, the figure was 11.4 per 100,000 while for those aged 12 to 14, it stood at 5 per 100,000.
The statistics ministry also reported that South Korea ranked 30th out of 34 OECD countries for life satisfaction among 15-year-olds.
Lee says the stigma is already evident in everyday interactions. At a recent job fair, an adviser told him he was starting from behind.
“The adviser suggested that I concentrate on building up my resume as my schooling background would not give me an advantage during job applications,” he recalled.
“There’s this notion that you go to regional universities if you don’t score well on Suneung. People believe these are students who don’t study enough or lack in some areas. I also eventually gave in to this belief.”
Scholarships, fellowships and cultural infrastructure are heavily concentrated in Seoul, according to Lee.

Beyond Seoul
The issue has also reached the political agenda. President Lee Jae Myung’s administration has proposed creating “10 Seoul National Universities” across the country to distribute elite university resources and funding beyond the capital.
Song believes that change is slowly taking place. After more than three years of monitoring hiring practices, his organisation has found that sectors including public institutions, IT, start-ups and finance are increasingly emphasising skills over academic background. Some national banks have adopted blind hiring systems that remove university names from application forms and interviews.
“The big problem is that people, especially students’ parents, are not really aware of these changes happening in the job market,” Song said.
“People see application forms always having a section to insert one’s university, so they can’t completely trust companies when they claim that they don’t look at educational backgrounds as much as before.”
However, not all educators believe legal reform alone can fix the country’s education system. Kim Tae-kyun, a researcher at the Educational Research and Innovation Centre of Korea, argues that deeper structural changes are needed first.
“Our country places a strong emphasis on having strong multidisciplinary universities,” he told This Week in Asia.
“If universities were to develop by specialising more in diverse fields and majors – almost like specialised institutions – they could diversify how they select students. That kind of diversification at the university level would, in turn, influence high schools as well.”

According to Kim, elite universities such as those in the “SKY” group have long promoted the idea that companies seek well-rounded graduates from prestigious institutions, often placing less value on field-specific expertise. As a result, specialised institutions – such as industrial, arts and vocational colleges – have been relegated to second tier within the education hierarchy.
“Right now, the available admission tracks are rigidly defined around mechanisms like the CSAT and student records, and selection takes place only within those limited channels. As a result, the system inevitably becomes exam-centred, and I believe that in itself is a problem.”
Lee still reflects on this rigidity. Looking back at his high school years, he wishes he had been given more space to pursue his interests.
“I remember I would always get high marks and receive awards when I entered maths competitions. I asked questions in classes that I had a keen interest in, but I would often be ignored by classmates when I did this,” he said.
“I wonder what could’ve been if I continued to follow my passion in maths, or if I really studied how to read and write English instead of solving the same Suneung questions over and over again.”
*Pseudonym used at the request of the interviewee


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Hiring practices have traditionally been centred around which school a candidate attended, with higher-paying jobs going to elite alumni


Hiring practices have traditionally been centred around which school a candidate attended, with higher-paying jobs going to elite alumni.


South Korea fights academic pedigree hiring bias that ‘turns everyone into losers’

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Hiring practices have traditionally been centred around which school a candidate attended, with higher-paying jobs going to elite alumni

Hiring practices have traditionally been centred around which school a candidate attended, with higher-paying jobs going to elite alumni