Kim Jung-hyun was at a loss when he found out he must write his own reference letters for university admissions.

The 18-year-old -- who studied in the US before entering one of Seoul’s top foreign language high schools -- strongly objected to the practice, but was told by a school counselor that “everyone does it here.”

“Teachers review what we wrote about ourselves in the format of reference letters and send them to colleges. In many cases, without changing a word,” the disgruntled student told The Korea Herald. Kim, like many fellow students at his school, is preparing for universities in the US.

In South Korea, entrance into a prestigious university is often the ultimate goal of education for students, their parents and teachers. But the admissions process is fraught with irregularities that some say undermine fair competition.

Admission requirements vary greatly among universities here, but the three common pillars are school records, letters of recommendation and suneung, the Korean equivalent of the US’ Scholastic Assessment Test.

Although suneung has its own issues, none question its objectivity in assessing a student’s academic performance. However, school records and teacher letters are a major source of unfairness and often invite falsification, critics say.

Letters of recommendation, in particular, are designed to highlight the special talents and intellect of students throughout their years in high school, which could help them stand out from others. In reality, they have more to do with falsely created character traits and made-up stories designed to enhance a student’s chances at entering a desired university.

A 2014 survey found that roughly 74 percent of the high school students polled and 75 percent of the parents polled doubted the objectivity of teachers’ recommendation letters, believing they are partly based on false stories.

The Ministry of Education specifies in its guidelines that teachers, or counselors, are required to write reference letters for graduating students, but it lacks concrete rules on enforcement, leaving the discretion to schools.

Park Min-kyu, who went to a public high school in Seoul and applied for local universities, said that at his school it was common for teachers to not pen the letters themselves.

“It is our future after all, so we don’t really object to the idea (of writing our own reference letters as instructed by teachers),” he said.

“Some of my classmates paid private counselors at hagwon (private education institutes) to have them ghostwrite the letters for them so that they could concentrate on their transcripts,” he added.

On the other hand, teachers complain of the workload and the pressure of writing reference letters that would allow their students to appear more appealing to university admission officials.

“A class has about 40 students and the students apply for multiple universities,” a high school teacher said. “And very often, we feel we don’t know enough about the students.”

Lim Sung-ho, the head of Jongro Academy, one of the biggest hagwon chains here, said the recommendation letters place an extra burden on students who spend most of their time cramming for school exams and the suneung.

“After decades of a suneung-centered admissions system, the Education Ministry and colleges suddenly emphasize the importance of extracurricular activities and reference letters in the assessment process,” he said.

“Such a system may be well-rooted in countries like the United States, but we are simply not ready to embrace the change all at once.”

To tackle the issue, another private institute expert argues that the government and schools should strengthen measures to monitor the objectivity of recommendation letters.

“It’s widely understood that it is part of the job of teachers to give their students every advantage in the admissions process, especially when it comes to allowing ghostwriting of the recommendation letter,” said Lee Man-ki, a director at Uway Joongang Education, a Seoul-based private evaluation and test provider.

In his opinion, the trend itself to review an applicant’s credentials more comprehensively through a teacher’s letter and school records is not wrong, but requires more thorough monitoring.

Failing to do so would give an unfair disadvantage to applicants from families who do not have the financial resources and time to invest in reference letters, Lee warned.

By Bak Se-hwan (sh@heraldcorp.com)