UPenn admissions: South Korean plagiarism row erupts

More than 5,000 people have joined a petition protesting against two nieces of South Korea’s newly appointed justice minister who allegedly plagiarised research papers to help gain admission to the University of Pennsylvania.

The siblings, Annabelle Choi and Madeline Choi, have been portrayed in the online petition as copying large portions of research papers while students at their high school in the Silicon Valley area of northern California.

Their uncle, Han Dong-hoon, was just appointed justice minister by South Korea’s newly elected president, Yoon Suk-yeol, despite some lawmakers from the opposition Democratic Party citing the plagiarism controversy.

The case is among a series of instances in which South Korean political leaders have been accused of using their connections and wealth to help their children and other relatives with academic and other preferences.

Representatives of Mr Han have disputed some parts of the allegations involving his relatives and offered no comment on others. Penn spokesmen declined to comment on the matter.

Annabelle Choi has just finished her freshman year at Penn, and Madeline Choi is due to start this coming autumn at the Ivy League institution.

Both were admitted to an especially selective seven-year bio-dental programme at Penn, according to the petition, organised by a group called For Justice In College Applications. The organisation describes itself as representing parents, students and academics determined to uphold integrity in admissions and research at highly selective US universities.

Their complaint cites an analysis using CopyLeaks, an online plagiarism detection site, that details the cases of six papers in journals attributed to Annabelle and Madeline Choi and fellow high school students in which about half or more of their entire manuscripts bear similarities to other published works.

“We are equally enraged, saddened and disheartened by this reality that some students go so far as to publish fabricated papers in predatory journals in order to enhance their applications for highly-selective universities,” the petitioners write.

Their demands include calls for Annabelle and Madeline and their listed co-authors “to admit their wrongdoings and apologise to the researchers whose work they have plagiarised and published as their own”, and for Penn to investigate the matter and publicly acknowledge the failures in their admissions process.

At least one of the six papers – appearing in Engineering International, a journal of the Asian Business Consortium, and attributed to Madeline Choi and five other authors – has been retracted.

A recent Penn graduate, who served as president of the Koreans At Penn student organisation, told the Penn student newspaper that he regarded the controversy as part of an organised effort by opponents of the new justice minister. The graduate later asked The Daily Pennsylvanian that his name be removed from its article, citing “significant online retaliation” against him.

paul.basken@timeshighereducation.com