High Court Supports SNU’s Position that Expulsion of Students with Four Accumulated Academic Probation Periods is Appropriate

A student expelled due to an accumulation of four academic probation periods sued the president of SNU demanding the cancellation of his expulsion and readmission this month. This student, who was admitted into SNU’s College of Law in 1999, maintained that he was “not given a chance” to explain the reason behind his low grades after being expelled according to school regulations.

However, Seoul High Court’s Judge Sung Baek-Hyun, department head of the fourth administration branch, announced on December 5 that he had ruled against the plaintiff. The Department of Justice explained, “As stated by both the constitutional law prescribing the autonomy of universities and the Higher Education Act, a school requirement that students maintain grades over a certain minimum is appropriate in order to establish an organized educational environment, and cannot be seen as a violation of the student’s educational rights beyond the autonomy of the university.”

Judge Sung also added that, “Although the regulation concerning student expulsion was repealed until 1998 before being re-implemented in 1999, and thus consequentially it could be seen that this student who entered school after the regulation was reintroduced was treated less favorably than students who started school in 1998 or before, this fact alone cannot serve as evidence against equal opportunity provided by the school.”

In this court of first instance the case was decided in favor of the defendant SNU, saying that “After the student had accumulated three academic probation periods, the school administration notified the student that he could be expelled, and through a letter citing the grounds for probation, the student was given enough opportunity to offer an explanation for his low grades.”

Currently, the SNU regulation regarding student expulsion reads that students with an accumulated total of four academic probation periods will be expelled. Academic probation signifies a warning given to undergraduate students with GPAs below 1.7, or those receiving a grade of F in three or more classes or more than 6 credits. These regulations were revised in 2008. Details and exceptions of the regulation are available on the SNU homepage on the school regulations page under chapter three “Regulations, Rewards and Punishment”. The regulation concerning academic probation and expulsion is stipulated in Articles 99 and 100. Expulsion can be cancelled in the case of illness on the part of the student by the Undergraduate Instructor Committee after medical records of the student issued by doctors have been reviewed.

Jan. 10, 2010
BoYoung Lee, SNU English Editor
bylee0708@gmail.com