KOREA: Korea University broke the rule that bans universities from grading which high schools applicants went to, according to an opposition lawmaker.

Students from elite high schools were given favors in an early admission process that was supposed to select students based on their high school grades, said Rep. Kwon Young-ghil of the Democratic Labor Party.

One-hundred and ninety students from Daeweon Foreign Language High School, or nearly 90 percent of that school's applicants, got through despite many of them having low high school grades.

"Top scoring students from ordinary high schools were cut out when hundreds of elite school students with low high school grades got through," Kwon said.

"This means Korea University took into account which high school an applicant went to."

The Korean Council of University Education, a negotiating body of 200 universities in charge of college admission issues, said it will look into the matter at the end of this month after all the admission processes have finished.

Under the so-called "three nots" policy, Korean universities have been prohibited from grading high schools for admission, instead administering their own entrance exams or accepting students in exchange for donations.

Kwon proposed a revised bill on higher education yesterday to make the three nots policy a law.

The bill bans universities from accepting students in exchange for contributions of land, facilities or money and from discriminating applicants based on their high schools, regions, gender, age or religion.

It also requires universities to consult the Education Minister when administering essay tests, oral tests or interviews outside the regular high school curriculum.

By Kim So-hyun