An unexpected situation has occurred in which servers at a private companies hired to handle university applications suddenly shut down, causing officials to extend the final application date for one day. Reportedly there were some applicants and their parents who, running out of time at the last hour, started submitting applications to schools at random, so you can sense the confusion they must have felt.
The companies protest the accusation that they were not prepared, saying that they significantly increased their server capacity compared to last year but there were just so many hits that there was nothing they could do. Every year, however, the system for accepting applications online has technical problems large and small that vary from temporarily shutting down completely to bugs in the fee payment process.
Predictions this year were, from the very start, that applicants would be watching each other to see where everyone else was submitting their applications and so many would be submitted at the very last moment. Anyone could have told you that since there were only four companies hired to run the operation, once problems occurred at one among them there would be a chain reaction. Officials need to look at whether these companies that had exclusive rights to serve as agents cared only about winning their contracts and neglected to make sufficient investments in equipment.
Schools have significantly reduced the cost of accepting applications compared to when they set up camp and did the job in person, but the cost of submitting applications has not gone down. Applicants are paying for the cost of paying the internet companies, too. There is not ample oversight of the companies operations, however, nor contingency plans for what to do when things go wrong. Administrators will have a hard time avoiding the criticism that they gave the most important part of university administration to outside companies only to increase school income. Education officials put potential problems that could cause massive distrust of the whole university entrance process on the backburner, and the end result was a massive incident. The excuse about "university autonomy" is irresponsible. Talk about the possibility of cyber terrorism proves the need for a government response.
This was a man-made disaster predicted to happen because of the thoughtlessness of the universities, the four private companies, and education officials. Measures need to be taken to assure something like this does not happen again, by diversifying deadlines or having schools adopt their own contingency plans.
The Hankyoreh, 30 December 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection]
[Editorial] Uni Application Madness Result of Official Neglect |
