▲ KUSA’s poster for the refusal for Samsung’s suggested recommendations system. Provided by their facebook page.

On January 24, the Samsung Group announced a new recommendation system for employment. Its targets were university students. For each university, the firm was willing to hire an assigned number of students to be recommended by their chancellors. The corporation set a quota for each university.

 

Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) was assigned the most spots with 115 students. Korea University (KU) and Yonsei University (YU) were assigned 100. However, while Samsung suggested the new policy to make hiring fairer, its plan brought unwanted criticism. A storm brewing, KU officially declined the corporation’s offer on January 27. When news of the system broke, many university students took it unacceptable. KU students too expressed their dislike for the new recommendation system. Specifically, in the online KU community, Koreapas, 70 percent of 297 voters disagreed with the recommendation system.

 

The KU administration shared the majority opinion. “The offer of Samsung is gracious, but we will decline it,” was the title of the official announcement. Kim Byoung Chul, the KU chancellor stated, “We are very grateful for the offer, but to keep the essentials of college learning, KU will refuse the offer.”