JAKARTA - The visas of more than 100 Chinese students who were scheduled to graduate from universities in South Korea in July were revoked, after authorities found that the academic documents they submitted were suspected of being forged.
The students, all enrolled at Honam University in Gwangju, had their visas revoked by the Gwangju Immigration Office during the winter break in January.
Most of them are graduate students and some are undergraduate students who transferred from other universities.
The majority of them were returning to their home countries at the time their visas were revoked, preventing them from re-entering Korea.
Five other people who were staying in the Ginseng Country during the winter holidays received immediate orders to leave South Korea, four of whom have left voluntarily.
The university said it had sent out an urgent notice ahead of the new semester advising students preparing to return to Korea to delay their arrival, warning them they could face deportation upon arrival at the airport.
Universities explain that they rely on internationally recognized certification systems, such as legalized documents (apostilles) - a form of certification issued by the government - to verify academic credentials when accepting international students.
"It is impossible for universities to verify each diploma individually, so we rely on internationally certified documents such as apostilles," said an official at Honam University, as reported by The Korea Times (30/4).
"The student concerned was accepted after their documents were verified through this process, and the Ministry of Justice and the immigration office also provided visas based on these documents. The university is also surprised by this situation," he said.
As the number of international students continues to increase, the responsibility for initial screening is increasingly handled by universities.
Given this background, the Ministry of Justice said the university was responsible for failing to properly verify the documents submitted.
However, there is still legal ambiguity regarding the role of universities in verifying student credentials.
"Although universities are required to report and manage the academic status of international students, the laws and regulations implementing them do not clearly assign them the responsibility to check the main visa requirements - such as verifying the authenticity of academic degrees - at the stage of applying for a D-2 visa (students)," said Kim Beom-su, an immigration lawyer and affiliate professor at Hanyang University.
Responding to questions from The Korea Times about the cancellation, the ministry said suspicions arose after identifying hundreds of cases in which students had obtained bachelor's degrees from the same US university during almost the same period.
"Suspicions arose when several hundred students reported obtaining a bachelor's degree from the same US university around the same time," an official at the justice ministry said.
"It was then discovered that the student was not in the US during that period, which prompted a full-scale investigation," he said.
The students' degrees were eventually confirmed as fake, and the ministry immediately revoked their visas.
Separately, the immigration office also stated that the action was taken in accordance with the Immigration Law, adding that an in-depth investigation into the case is underway.
Honam University said it would fully cooperate with the ongoing investigation, while also conducting a legal review and preparing a response that was proportionate to the situation.
Concerns have also emerged regarding structural limitations in managing the rapidly growing number of international students.
In practice, this responsibility is often delegated to the university's international office, where a small number of staff handle administrative work for a large number of international students.
"Structurally, most universities do not have enough personnel to conduct the necessary thorough verification," Kim said.
"If the diploma is found to be false, it will be difficult to say that the university is not responsible. However, it is also difficult to accept the claim of the Ministry of Justice that the university bears full responsibility for verifying the degree certificate - a core requirement for issuing a D-2 visa - when the responsibility has effectively been transferred to them without any legal basis," he said.
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