It has been confirmed that former BEAST members Gikwang, Doojoon, Junhyung and Hyunseung; BTOB members Eunkwang and Sungjae; and folk singer Choo Ga Yeol received preferential treatment from Dongshin University and their degrees have been canceled as a result.

According to the announcement by the Ministry of Education, Dongshin University approved the broadcast activities of celebrity students as part of their class attendance records in accordance with the school’s internal regulations. It turns out, however, that these regulations were not stipulated until 2015 and there were no delegation provisions that stated that issues relating to class attendance could be managed differently depending on the department. As a result, the Ministry of Education deemed that they provided preferential treatment to these celebrity students and concluded that the attendance of the students at hand could not be approved. As a result, they have decided to cancel the degrees of the 6 celebrity students: Gikwang, Doojoon, Junhyung, Hyunseung, Eunkwang and Sungjae.

In particular, the school went against the regulations and appointed singer Choo Ga Yeol as an adjunct professor of the Department of Applied Music while attending the school despite the fact that he didn’t even have a bachelor’s degree. It was revealed that he wasn’t able to attend classes due to the overlapping period between his lectures as a student and lectures as an adjunct professor. As a result, Ga Yeol’s bachelor’s degree was canceled along with his appointment as adjunct professor.

News of the former BEAST members’ preferential treatment was first released last August when a broadcast station announced that the members had received preferential treatment in terms of attendance, scholarship and graduation.

At the time, Highlight‘s agency and a former BEAST manager spoke up, claiming that the reports were false and giving details to support their claim.

As notified through the news, the former BEAST and current Highlight members Doojoon, Junhyung and Gikwang enrolled in Dongshin University at the same time in 2010. However, it is not true that they were enrolled illegally or that they did not attend school. ㅡ Around Us Entertainment

I’ve even went to the school with the members on multiple occasions. Although they did not attend all classes, they did attend and even took exams. They also diligently submitted class assignments. ㅡ Former BEAST Manager