Parents who cheat on their children’s university admissions

Parents always want what is best for their children. Oftentimes, they go the extra mile to be able to afford and access top-quality education for their children and remove all obstacles to their success. After all, people believe that a good education is key to a secure and comfortable future.

But some parents have taken it too far to the point of crossing ethical and legal boundaries. One such example is that of a professor in South Korea who has been accused of forcing her students to write research papers for her daughter.

The professor of Seoul’s Sungkyunkwan University also assigned her graduate students to conduct a three-month research experiment and falsify the data, which her daughter submitted for publication in an academic journal under her own name.

The professor also forced one of the graduate students to serve 54 hours of volunteer work converting a book to Braille and publishing it under the daughter’s name.

The daughter won several awards for research papers done by her mother’s students. Worse, the daughter submitted a thesis written by her mother’s students to apply to Seoul National University’s prestigious dental school. She was granted admission last year.

South Korea’s Education Ministry has called for the expulsion of the professor from the school.

In March this year, a massive college admissions scandal erupted in the US. Politicians, business leaders, celebrities, and other big-name personalities have been accused of bribing university coaches and administration into admitting their children.

Students with no prior experience in any sport were granted varsity scholarships in top universities such as Yale, Stanford, and the University of Southern California.

The elaborate scheme was conspired by a certain “college counselling consultant,” William Singer. Someone else would take admissions exams in place of the student applicants. Exam results and sports achievements were falsified, and even the students’ photos were photoshopped on bodies of athletes in application documents. Singer accepted payments from wealthy parents and channeled the money to universities to appear as “donations.”

There is an ongoing prosecution in the US regarding the college admissions scheme, and accused parties have been charged.

These are but a few examples of a flawed and exploitative educational system. The competitiveness and cut throat race to get into top schools has resulted in parents becoming cheats.

And the disappointing reality is that wealth seems to trump hard work when it comes to access to a good education. -/TISG