Even the Costs for Issuing University Electronic Certificates are a Burden When It is Hard to Find a Job

• ACRC recommends public and national universities and the Ministry of Education to ease the burden of issuing electronic certificates from universities… There should be management of the format and costs of issuing electronic certificates to reduce the burden on job seekers.

The costs incurred by young people when obtaining electronic certificates from universities for job preparation or external activities are expected to decrease.

The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC, Chairperson Ryu Chul Whan) prepared a “Plan to Ease the Burden of Issuing University Electronic Certificates” on the 9th of this month and recommended it to public and national universities and the Ministry of Education.

The ACRC 2030 Advisory Group* noted that after the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an increase in current students and job seekers obtaining certificates such as enrollment and graduation certificates online. However, they expressed significant burden due to the need to obtain multiple copies depending on the submitting institution, thus requesting institutional improvements to redress this issue.

*The 2030 Advisory Group, operated by the ACRC, consists of 20 individuals in their 20s and 30s from various backgrounds, including university students, education and social welfare workers, and company employees, to reflect the voices of youth in anti-corruption policy formulation and propose innovative policy ideas for young people.

(Table) Current Status of University Electronic Certificate Issuance Costs (Oct. 2024, ACRC Survey)】

Unlike paper certificates, electronic certificates require specifying the submitting company or institution, leading to the inconvenience and cost burden of having to obtain electronic certificates from each institution.

Additionally, the validity period for electronic certificates is approximately 3 months, requiring renewed certificates each quarter for employment or external activities.

In response, the ACRC recommended public and national universities to allow electronic certificates to be issued with only the purpose of submission, such as ‘for company submission,’ without requiring the entry of the place of use, and to extend the current validity period of electronic certificates beyond 3 months to reduce the cost burden for students and graduates.

Furthermore, at the level of the Ministry of Education, ACRC also recommended guidelines on the format and costs of issuing electronic certificates for public and national universities should be established.

For private universities, the Ministry of Education is also expected to create guidelines or share best practices from public and national universities to manage the issuance format of electronic certificates and reduce the costs incurred by current students and graduates.

The Vice Chairperson for Grievance Handling and Secretariat of the ACRC, Park Jong-min, said, “As youth unemployment continues, we expect that this system improvement will reduce the cost burden for university certificates needed for external activities or employment.”