Protesting students at a South Korean university have been credited with sparking the fall of the nation¡¯s impeached president, Park Geun-hye.

Demonstrations by students at Ewha Womans University against the institution¡¯s plans for a new degree programme eventually led to a sit-in to remove Ewha¡¯s president, which in turn uncovered ¡°a crucial piece of the puzzle in the political scandal that eventually brought down the country¡¯s leader: the school¡¯s favoritism to an equestrian athlete who turned out to be the daughter of Park¡¯s secretive confidante, Choi Soon-sil¡±, .

¡°Ewha protests were the key to the impeachment,¡± said Lee Taek-Gwang, a professor of cultural studies at South Korea¡¯s Kyunghee University.?

¡°The extent of Ewha¡¯s favors to Choi¡¯s daughter, Chung Yoo-ra, was further investigated by South Korea¡¯s parliament and a special prosecution team. Seven school officials, including its former president and several professors, were indicted on criminal charges, and Chung¡¯s admission to the university was cancelled,¡± The Washington Post said.

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The newspaper added that this ¡°unleashed the massive popular movement that would help unseat Park, who was impeached by parliament in December¡± and formally removed from office last week. Ms Park is accused of being personally involved in Ms Choi¡¯s pressuring of businesses to donate to the latter¡¯s private foundations, in return for political favours.

As ³ÉÈËVRÊÓƵ reported in November, Ms Chung, a member of the national dressage team, enrolled at Ewha in 2015, soon after the university expanded its list of sports eligible for preferential treatment to include equestrian sports.

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Despite minimal attendance and late submissions, Ms Chung received good marks, following a recently introduced internal regulation favouring the grades of students showing athletic or artistic ability.

The South Korean Ministry of Education dispatched a team to Ewha and found that Ms Choi¡¯s daughter had been given preferential treatment. It then demanded that her admission to the university be cancelled.

john.morgan@tesglobal.com