Ewha opens parent portal web site for parents

The school launched a parent portal Web site (http://parent.ewha.ac.kr/) specifically dedicated to parents of Ewha students on March 7. The Web site provides information related to school and students’ lives at school.
The new web site is for those parents who sign up for the service and go through information certification process. Those who are verified as parents of Ewha students are officially signed in to use services.
The new site provides mostly their children’s academic records including grades, scholarship awards and internship programs. However, the amount of information regarding students made available for parents is limited to the categories their students allowed to be accessible for their parents.
Parents who signed up for the service can also acquire diverse information about the school including receiving guidebooks and newsletters on major school events, checking and printing the tuition bill and being notified of school programs for parents.
The school said that such launching was to provide more convenience for parents. There have been many requests for a Web site which was expressed during annual survey and at events for parents.
The school announced that it will also actively reflect parents’ voices collected through “parent portal” into school policies.
Parents of Ewha students showed positive responses towards the school’s such decision.
“I think it will provide a lot of convenience for parents, especially those of freshmen,” said a mother of a freshman who wanted to remain anonymous. “Since my daughter is an only child, I am not familiar with the university system and how things are run. I think the parents portal will be a great helping hand in this situation, so I will definitely sign up for the service.”
However, some students voiced concerns that such Web site can potentially affect the rights and privacy of each student.
“It does not seem valid for the university to give rights to view student information to parents,” said Yoo Ji-sun, a senior majoring in English and English Education. “After all, we are all grown ups. Whether a student shares school information with her parents or not should be up for her to decide.”