Ham Eun-jung reveals she was expelled from Dongguk University: 'My highest degree is high school'

Ham Eun-jung, an actor and former member of the K-pop group T-ara, has revealed that she was expelled from Dongguk University while enrolled there.

On Wednesday, Ham uploaded a video to her YouTube channel titled "A 2007 enrollee's challenge to re-enroll," in which she visited her alma mater, Dongguk University, for the first time in eight or nine years to consult about re-enrollment.

Ham said it was her first time back on campus since the theater department had once gathered entertainers there for an event.

She explained the background to her debut as a singer, saying she had been admitted to the university's theater department before T-ara's debut. "After I got into school, I started looking for an entertainment company," she said. "I had been accepted and was planning to become an actor, but they told me I could pursue both singing and acting."

Ham said she attended through her first year, took a leave of absence in her second year, and then returned as a third-year student when her leave period ended. "But I was so busy that I just couldn't go to class," she said.

She added that she had paid a full year's tuition in two six-month installments but was expelled because she never showed up.

"Whenever the subject of school came up, I was too embarrassed to mention Dongguk University," she said. "I never even graduated, so it was just too awkward."

Ham, born in 1988 and 37 this year, said: "If I were just a little younger, I'd want to go back to school, but I don't think it's going to happen. I'm already old enough to be a professor."

On campus, she ran into a classmate from the theater department and asked, "Are you a teaching assistant?" The classmate replied, "I'm a lecturer," prompting Ham to react with surprise: "I never even graduated, and you're already a lecturer?"

A check of her academic records showed Ham had earned 36 credits — far short of the 130 required to graduate.

A theater department professor advised her that, with five semesters remaining, attending two and a half consecutive years was not realistic. The professor recommended she complete one semester at a time and take a leave of absence whenever a project came up.

On the subject of a graduation project, the professor said she did not have to perform as an actor — she could substitute a thesis or work as a crew member. The professor also noted that performing alongside current students could be difficult for them, as they would be working with someone so much their senior.