Yonsei University (Image provided by the school)
SEOUL, Nov. 11 (Korea Bizwire) — Yonsei University, long a symbol of South Korea’s academic rigor, is now facing a reckoning that feels distinctly of this era: how to teach, test, and trust in the age of artificial intelligence.
After revelations that dozens of students allegedly used ChatGPT and other AI tools to cheat during an online exam, the Seoul-based university is planning a public hearing on AI ethics—a forum meant not just to punish, but to ask larger questions about integrity, education, and the meaning of effort when machines can think alongside us.
The proposed hearing, led by Yonsei’s Institute for AI and Social Innovation, aims to confront uncomfortable realities: the steady migration of college life online, the unchecked spread of AI in classrooms, and the growing mismatch between technology’s speed and academia’s rules. “We see this as an opportunity to discuss the ethical awareness needed for future higher education,” a university official said.
A scene from a university lecture taking place in South Korea. (Yonhap)
The scandal unfolded in a course titled Natural Language Processing and ChatGPT, a class that, ironically, teaches students how such technologies work. Nearly 600 students took the midterm remotely on October 15.
Despite rules requiring continuous video of their screens, hands, and faces, some angled cameras away, opened multiple programs, or found other digital loopholes. One online poll suggested that more than half of the class may have cheated.
University officials say around 40 students have confessed, while others remain under investigation. Disciplinary measures, they say, could follow.
The episode has quickly come to symbolize a new kind of crisis in higher education—not one of ignorance, but of abundance. Students now have access to infinite intelligence on demand, while institutions struggle to define what counts as learning. In this gap between possibility and principle, Yonsei’s hearing may be less about punishment than about rediscovering purpose.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
