Yonsei’s New Course Enrollment System Evokes Widespread Confusion

Thousands of Yonsei students faced panic and confusion as technical complications arose in the course enrollment period for Spring 2023. The first issue surfaced on February 15, 2023, as numerous students reported faults in the mileage registration process. Despite major courses allocating seats for double-major students, the registration system failed to take this into account, resulting in double-major students being denied seats. While students were advised to utilize the “report inaccuracies” button for these cases, many revealed that the overly complex criteria of mileage enrollment added to their reluctance to flag these instances due to the fear of a miscalculation on their part. 

Following this initial confusion, a major incident occurred on the morning of February 16, 2023, a day planned for additional course enrollment. As thousands of students scurried to secure their seats, the enrollment system came to a halt due to overwhelming traffic, ultimately displaying the following error message: “The selected item is not eligible for course enrollment.” As this issue ensued, Yonsei’s Academic Affairs team posted an announcement at around 9:30 AM, titled “[Urgent] Notice on Changing the Schedule for Additional Course Enrollment,” which noted the postponement of additional enrollment to 10:30 AM on the same day. However, another update was posted promptly after, issuing yet another suspension of the schedule. February 17, 2023, was announced as the finalized day for additional course enrollment, and the announcement added a nullification of any successful enrollment attempts from the previous day. 

However, yet another problem arose on February 17, 2023. Students entering their sophomore year and sophomore, junior, and senior students affiliated with the International Campus faced additional barriers. This included Underwood International College’s (UIC) Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences Division (HASS), the Integrated Science and Engineering Division (ISE), the School of Integrated Technology, and the College of Pharmacy. Some four thousand students under this criteria received a message incorrectly announcing that they could not enroll in courses opening in Sinchon due to their “Residential College (RC) requirements.” This critical error left many frustrated, as they were wrongly deterred from choosing their classes. Amy Niu, an International Studies (IS) major of the class of 2022, voiced her exasperation. “I was so confused because I could not apply to Sinchon classes. They opened an additional period as compensation, but there were no additional seats, so it did not make sense,” she said. Despite Yonsei’s attempts at compensation, students were still left hanging on February 28, 2023, as few Major Elective (ME) classes opened additional seats for those affected. 

On top of the numerous technical failures unique to this semester, students have consistently voiced their dissatisfaction with the overall system. Cloris Yu, a Comparative Literature and Culture (CLC) of the class of 2019, voiced her discontent with the latency of the system. “The system usually keeps me waiting for quite a long time, around an hour almost. When I click on the syllabus, it does not pop up right away either,” she said. Another student, Jinseo Park, an English Language and Literature major of the class of 2019, added, “It is difficult to view the list of classes without scrolling it to the side, making it very frustrating to look at multiple classes at once. The changed syllabus format also makes it harder to figure out what the class is actually going to be like.” Niu also mentioned the added difficulties of navigating the system as a foreign student. “It is hard to change the language setting on the webpage, and it reverts back to Korean when you get redirected. The course categories on the portal system are poorly translated. Also, foreign students are in different time zones, so that is another difficulty,” Niu added. 

Students have repeatedly voiced their dissatisfaction with the enrollment system, but Yonsei’s administration has shown a disappointing response each semester. As course enrollment relates directly to the right to education, the student society urges Yonsei’s reflection on the severity of this issue.