Local universities are moving to toughen their rules against sexual abuse in the wake of a series of sexual harassment scandals involving faculty members and students.

Some universities have come under fire after accepting the resignations of some of their faculty members who were suspected of sexual harassment without properly investigating them and holding them responsible for their wrongdoings.

The recent cases involve professors at top-tier schools including Seoul National University and Korea University. Calls have mounted for the schools to employ tougher measures to stamp out sexual violence as victims argue that students are vulnerable to abuses in the “hierarchical power structure” in academia.

The scandal involving a professor at Chung-Ang University, in particular, has sparked intense public criticism as the school continued to allow the professor to lecture even after its human rights center had investigated him for sexual abuse allegations.

As part of moves to root out sexual violence, Kyung Hee University is reportedly seeking to revise its school regulations to ban those who have committed sexual crimes from dropping out of the school, resigning or taking a leave of absence before the case is thoroughly investigated.

Activists have pointed out that when professors suspected of sexual harassment resigned, schools were not able to take any disciplinary measures against them.

Ewha Womans University has decided to give extra career points to professors who receive education on sex crime prevention, during their faculty evaluations from next year. Professors at the school have received online education, but there was not any disadvantage for those who did not receive it.

Korea University is seeking to look at sex crimes from the perspective of broader human rights protection and toughen related rules against those crimes.

The string of cases of sexual violence has laid bare the vulnerability of pupils struggling in the system of strict hierarchical academia. Some students claim that they could not resist abuses at the thought of the possibility that their professors would become uncooperative in their completion of academic courses.

By Song Sang-ho (sshluck@heraldcorp.com)