university

Dressage students find College admission too easy

Gayathri | Thursday, October 20, 2016 4:26 PM IST

 Dressage students find College admission too easy

Some universities' practice of accepting dressage athletes to finance their college sports teams has rekindled criticism following the resignation of Ewha Womans' University President Choi Kyung-hee.

Choi had been under pressure to quit for allegedly using her position to accept and help the daughter of President Park Geun-hye's confidant maintain her status as a student there.

Chung Yoo-ra, the daughter of President Park's friend Choi Soon-sil, was chosen as a dressage athlete by the university in 2015. However, her questionable credentials have fueled the allegation that her admission and valid status as a student ― despite her failure to meet academic standards ― were the result of her mother's ties with President Park.

Kim Kab-su, a professor of equine studies at Cheju Halla University, is critical of some universities' indiscriminative acceptance of dressage athletes.

'To send your child to university as a dressage rider, you need to pay at least 500 million won ($445,000); 200 million won for two horses, 100 or 200 million won for training these animals and the rest is needed for other miscellaneous stuff,' he said.

According to him, two horses are needed for dressage competitors to continue their training in case one of them gets sick.

'Making your child a college dressage rider requires a huge investment. I'm wondering how many Korean parents can possibly invest such a huge amount of money for that purpose,' he said.

Professor Kim questioned the universities' motives in accepting dressage students.

'Currently, there are no universities that have horse stables and so dressage students practice outside campus. This makes me wonder why universities accept them,' he said. 

There are some 50 dressage students attending universities in Korea. Former Miss Korea Han Sung-joo was also a college dressage student. She studied political science and international relations at Korea University. Student athletes accepted by universities can choose majors other than physical education. 

Equestrian sports in general are expensive and only children from high-income families have access to the training. Naturally, competition for college admissions as dressage students is less competitive, paving the way for rich children entering prestigious universities even though their high school academic performances are not stellar.

Cash-strapped universities have selected less competitive student athletes, including dressage students, to fund their efforts to recruit star athletes. 

According to the Board of Audit and Inspection, five universities accepted 12 unqualified student athletes in return for unspecified amounts of money which was used by those universities to recruit 15 high-flying athletes for their sports teams.

Student-athlete candidates must submit the certificates of their accomplishments in national sports competitions. Once they meet the criteria, university authorities interview them to select student athletes.

Chung won a gold medal in dressage in the 2014 Asian Games. This is how she met the requirement as a student athlete. 

However, she was mired in controversy because of her dubious credentials. In 2013, she participated in the national equestrian competition hosted by the Korea Racing Authority in the southeastern city of Sangju. Her rival, who is identified only with her last name Kim, won the competition in dressage.

Immediately after the contest, police officers investigated the head judge on a corruption allegation. He was quoted as saying that he had no idea why he was investigated and asked the police if there was any evidence to support his involvement in the corruption case. The investigators were quoted as saying that they were 'informed' about possible corruption in the selection of the winner of the competition by an unspecified source. The judge was released as the police found no evidence.

Following the police investigation, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism embarked on a separate investigation about the corruption allegation. After a thorough investigation of the Korea Equestrian Federation (KEF), two culture ministry officials concluded in a final report that not only the KEF but also Chung were possibly involved in dubious activities. The report cost them their careers in the culture ministry. Some speculated that Chung's family ties with President Park could have played a part behind the sackings of the two officials.

Chung's academic performance also fanned suspicions about her qualification. She missed courses too often and turned in substandard papers to her professors. Plenty of typo errors, non-academic words and even slang were found in them.