Court Grants Injunction in 'Yonsei University Essay Leak' Case... Suspension of Admission Announcement

"Supervisors Also Fail to Take Appropriate Measures"

Regarding the controversy over the alleged leak of the essay questions for the natural sciences track in next year's Yonsei University early admission, the court has accepted a provisional injunction request from some examinees and parents to suspend the validity of the exam.

Yonhap News

On the 15th, the Civil Division 21 of the Seoul Western District Court (Presiding Judge Jeon Boseong) ruled, "The subsequent procedures following the 2025 Yonsei University early admission natural sciences track essay exam shall be suspended until the judgment is delivered in the case requesting a re-examination of the essay test."

The examinees have filed a joint lawsuit with the court requesting to retake the essay exam.

The court stated, "This case fundamentally began when the test papers were distributed early and then collected only at one test site due to an error by the supervisors, and the supervisors did not take appropriate measures to prevent the possibility of external leakage of information related to the test after collecting the papers."

Ultimately, the court judged that an environment conducive to cheating was created due to the negligence of Yonsei University, which holds responsibility for managing and supervising the supervisors, and that the cause of the fairness violation cannot be attributed solely to the misconduct of some examinees.

Kim Jeongseon, the lawyer representing the examinees, explained, "The suspension of the procedure means that the unfairness of the exam has been acknowledged."

Earlier, when the essay exam for the natural sciences track was held, an incident occurred at one test site where the test papers were distributed about an hour before the exam started due to a supervisor's mistake and then collected. The examinees filed a provisional injunction request to suspend the validity of the exam, claiming that fairness was compromised due to the prior leakage of the test content.

There are officially 18 examinees participating in this lawsuit, and including those who have indirectly participated by submitting statements or related evidence, the number exceeds 50.