ⓒ KBS

The national university entrance exam, known as the College Scholastic Ability Test, will be held in December in South Korea. This year, the absence rate for the annual exam is forecast to reach its highest level. Many students believe they couldn’t prepare for the exam enough because in-person classes have been postponed and classes have been conducted remotely due to the COVID-19 epidemic. 

As a result, they may give up taking the test this year. Test-takers and parents alike are busy devising an appropriate strategy for the exam, all the more so this year due to the pandemic. 

We can’t help but wonder how the college admissions system works in North Korea. Kang Mi-jin, a North Korean defector and reporter at the online newspaper Daily NK, explains that North Korea’s college entrance test consists of two phases—the preliminary exam and the main exam.

In the early 2000s, North Korea changed the date of the nationwide preliminary exam to late February or early March, as the new academic year started on April 1. Previously, it began on September 1. The exam covers the Korean language, English, math, physics, chemistry and physical education. I attended college in the 1980s, when the test subjects had six questions each. These days, it is said that revolutionary history, literature and English have three questions each, while physics and chemistry have two questions each. Math has three to five questions. For all subjects, the perfect score is 5. If test-takers pass the preliminary exam, they get a notice of success. With the notice, they move on to take the main exam.

In one of the distinctive parts of North Korea’s college admission system, the authorities notify students of universities they will attend. Based on the test result of their preliminary exam, the authorities set a certain quota on college admission for each high school. In line with the prearranged quota, the schools recommend students to universities in consideration of their test result and ideological commitment. In the process, students do not have the right to choose any university but only go to a designated university to take the main exam. In other words, it is not the students themselves but the state that decides on their universities. 

In South Korea, students choose which university they will go to and apply for that university. In North Korea, on the other hand, the education department of the Workers’ Party decides on the number of new students to be admitted to universities and allots certain numbers of would-be university students for each high school. The central education authorities send the guidelines down to provinces, which again send them to local counties. North Korea employs the top-down, state-directed policy when it comes to college admissions. 

In the North, university admissions are something like a free pass to guarantee one’s stable job and life. It will be smooth sailing throughout one’s life once admitted to prestigious schools, such as Kim Il Sung University, Kim Chaek University of Technology and the Pyongyang University of Foreign Studies. It comes as little surprise that parents in North Korea, just like their South Korean counterparts, make an all-out effort to send their children to good schools. In South Korea, what matters the most in university admissions is academic records. In the North, parents’ social status and wealth are also important, other than the students’ test scores. So, it is challenging to get into universities, especially prestigious ones. 

When taking the university entrance exam, it is essential to submit a copy of the applicant’s high school diploma or certificate on academic performance, as well as a letter of recommendation provided jointly by the school the student belongs to and the Socialist Youth League. In the process of getting a letter of recommendation, parents’ career or power is crucial. In addition to the applicant’s family background and test scores, parents’ wealth is also important. Mothers tend to bribe the academic affairs office in high schools so their children can be selected for good universities. If a high school initially considered letting five students take the main exam for college admission, and if the school received a quota of ten from the education authorities, it can select five more. Influential parents aim for those spots. 

Even if students have a good school record, they cannot expect to go to a prestigious university without bribes. 

If high school seniors in South Korea fail to enter a university or if they believe their test results are not good enough, they may choose to give it another shot next year or make a third attempt the year after next. But it is not easy for North Korean applicants to do so if they fail to pass the college entrance exam. 

North Korean students who fail to enter university on the first attempt have to join the military or work first before making the second attempt. The compulsory military service is set at between seven and 13 years, but typically at 10 years. When a person graduates from a high school in his late teens but doesn’t pass the college entrance exam, he may get the opportunity again in his late 20s. If he enters a university then, he will finish his university in his mid-30s. South Koreans may study at a relatively older age in that way. But North Koreans typically get married and have a family in their late 20s, and it is almost impossible for people with families to prepare for the college entrance exam. So, very few people study for the college entrance exam for a second time. 

Some high school seniors in South Korea choose to go abroad to study, rather than enter a local university. But if North Korean students are asked if they want to study abroad, they will probably say, “Only in my dreams.” For North Korean citizens in general, it is hard to imagine going abroad itself. Only a few students chosen by the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party are allowed to study in other countries. But even if students are fortunate enough to get the chance, it is said that many of those who studied abroad regret having done so. 

When selecting students who will study abroad, North Korea thoroughly examines their family background, for fear that they might be influenced by capitalistic culture outside the country. The students must get ideology education and verification before going abroad. When they return home after finishing their studies in other countries, they are under strict monitoring by the authorities between six months and one year. That’s because their ideology, after studying abroad, is called into question. In a sense, it could be another form of human rights infringement. 

Many North Koreans who studied abroad are more intellectual and open-minded than educated people who only stayed within the country, and they tend to lean toward capitalism. I think that’s why many of those who had studied overseas ended up in the notorious Yoduk concentration camp. 

Not everyone can go to university in North Korea. Prestigious universities, in particular, which are considered a shortcut to a successful career, require good grades on the exam AND proper family backgrounds. So, those who were born with a silver spoon in their mouths have a higher chance of getting into such schools. The university entrance competition in North Korea is as intense as in South Korea, and the trend will likely continue.