Women account for only 15% of the tenured faculty at Seoul National University (SNU), a figure showing serious gender disparity at the school. Female professors only held 13.3% of the major positions at the school, far below 40%, the minimum for female participation presented by the Framework Act on Gender Equality. Among the Korean faculty members, Seoul National University graduates accounted for 80.4%, and an overwhelming 47.7% of the professors obtained their highest degree in the United States.

On October 12, Seoul National University's Diversity Council (Chair: Professor Roe Jung-hye) released a diversity report with such details for the first time for a Korean university. A diversity report is the result of statistics and analyses on the gender, origin, race, nationality, etc. of members within an organization gathered to increase diversity and reduce discrimination among the members. Leading overseas universities, such as Harvard University, have diversity organizations in place, announce annual diversity reports, and reflect the results in their policies.

The latest diversity report showed distinct gender inequality in the appointment of faculty and staff at the school. Women accounted for 40.5% of the undergraduate population, and 43.2% of the graduate students, but for full-time faculty members, who are guaranteed their tenure (professors), women only accounted for 15%. This number is far lower than the average percentage of female professors in private universities (24.8%). What's more, 36% (53) of the school's departments, divisions and classrooms had less than 10% of female professors or none at all.

The percentage of female professors taking part in major decision-making bodies in the school was also less than 15%. Among the professors holding major positions in the school, only 13.3% were women. For 43 years since 1975, when the school relocated to the current Gwanak campus, women served in the school's main office as assistant deans, deans and higher positions only ten times. In addition, women only accounted for 14% of the professors in the nineteen review boards and advisory bodies stipulated in the school's constitution and rules.

Meanwhile, the proportion of female workers increased the higher the job insecurity. Among the non-tenured faculty and researchers, women accounted for more than half at 57.6%. As for professional part-time lecturers, whose employment is highly unstable, 61% were women. The situation was similar with the school's general staff. Among the full-time regular employees, women only accounted for 47.4%, whereas 74.6% of the indeterminate-term contract workers and fixed-term contract workers were women.

The report also pointed out problems in the treatment of part-time lecturers, who have to sign a contract every semester. Among the personnel in research and education at Seoul National University, 49.1% (2,168) were hired as fixed-term contract workers. The report stated, "The group that is important but most undervalued at the school was professional part-time workers, such as part-time lecturers." It further analyzed, "Part-time lecturers at the university are hired on a semester basis, and researchers are immediately unemployed when their funding is suspended. Thus job insecurity is serious."

The school also had a significantly low percentage of students and teachers with disabilities. Only 84 students with disabilities registered at the university, a mere 0.29% of the total student population of 28,630. As for the faculty, only 13 were registered as disabled-0.6% of the total tenured faculty. The report said, "There were hardly any policies identified to support faculty and staff with disabilities."

There was also a serious concentration of faculty members who had studied in the U.S. Among the Korean professors, 47.7% had received their final degree in the U.S., a larger percentage than the professors who had received a doctoral degree from a Korean university (41.8%). Figures show a huge gap with the professors with degrees from other countries: Germany 2.9%, U.K. 2.2%, Japan 2.1%. The report further stated, "Due to the influence of the U.S.-centered globalization, the number of people studying in other countries appears to have declined. Amid such a trend, the number of scholars within the school who can explain various countries from a Korean perspective has reduced and this can bring negative consequences in research and education."

The Seoul National University Diversity Council was established in March 2016 as an advisory body directly under the president of the school. The school had first tried to create a gender-equality body upon request from the school's female faculty, but expanded the organization to the Diversity Council to seek improvements embracing all minorities.