Exposing Dongguk University: Racialized Sexual Violence, Institutional Betrayal, and Alleged Public Funds Fraud (2016–2025)

Second Falsified Partnership on Dongguk University's Website: Dongguk Not Listed by UBC — 150+ Days of Silence

September 3, 2025

Executive summary

What we verified (with archives)

We also maintain a public timeline page for Dongguk and government silence counters on our project domain. As of today, it displays 150+ days without response since our first Canadian university outreach on April 5-6, 2025, and Korean government notifications on April 10, 2025.

Why this matters beyond one university

Falsified partner claims are not a harmless clerical error. They:

This is the second Canadian case we have documented. Repetition indicates a pattern — not an isolated oversight. It also undercuts any confidence in Korea’s IEQAS certification regime as a real-world safety/quality signal.

IEQAS is compromised by observable reality

We have previously detailed (May 12, 2025) why IEQAS cannot be relied upon, using Dongguk as a case study: a film/arts context with high sexual‑violence risk, partnership misrepresentation, and sustained institutional silence — yet certification intact. See our longer analysis and sources:

Two demonstrably false Canadian partnerships on a single IEQAS‑certified university site make the certification’s practical value indefensible without external audit.

Ethical dimension: claimed Buddhist affiliation vs. deceptive representations

Dongguk publicly claims a Buddhist affiliation. Persisting, for 150+ days, in listing partner institutions that do not confirm the relationship contradicts basic ethical precepts of truthfulness and non‑harm. If these listings influence international students' decisions, then the deception has concrete safety implications.

This represents what we have documented as a Triple Betrayal of Buddhist University principles, violating Right Speech, Right Livelihood, and the fundamental commitment to Truth. See our comprehensive analysis in Preventing Sexual Violence and Buddhist Ethics: Open Letter to the Faculty of Buddhism at Dongguk University and Buddhist University Turns Blind Eye to Sexual Violence Risk.

What we've done and when

Complete Email Documentation: All outreach emails from April 5, 2025 through September 2, 2025 are available in our GitHub repository:

📧 Complete Email Archive (.eml files)

(Repository link will be updated once emails are uploaded)

This includes:

Additional sources from our prior reporting:

Archival set for this article:

What we ask next

For UBC:

For Dongguk University:

For Korean oversight bodies (MOE; IEQAS program office; KCUE):

For Global Affairs Canada / Embassy in Seoul:

For ATIXA and partner institutions globally:

Next steps (process transparency)

Why we may notify all Dongguk‑listed partners in ~72 hours

Multiple apparent false Canadian partners on Dongguk's site, combined with 150+ days of coordinated silence across two countries, obligate us to warn other universities who may unknowingly be leveraged as reputational cover. We will circulate a brief with:

Appendix: baseline risk for arts/culture programs in Korea

Korean government data (KWDI 2020) indicates extremely high sexual‑violence exposure for arts/culture programs (61.5% of women, 17.2% of men). These are the very pipelines recruiting international students into entertainment‑adjacent sectors. Any misleading partner claims that steer students into these programs without accurate risk communication are unacceptable.

Sources (download):

If you represent a listed partner institution and require our evidence pack (.eml files, screenshots, WACZ, hash manifests), email: genderwatchdog@proton.me. Complete email documentation spanning 150+ days of institutional silence is available in our GitHub Email Archive.