The South Korean government announced plans to allocate 82% of the additional 2,000 medical school admissions seats to universities outside the Seoul Metropolitan Area and the remaining 18% of new slots to universities in Incheon and Gyeonggi Province, starting with this year’s university entrance exams on Mar. 20.
This move, marking the first expansion of the medical school admissions quota in 27 years since 1998, was met with fierce resistance from the medical sector. Nearly 12,000 trainee doctors have staged a walkout, and medical school professors have threatened to submit their resignations on Mar. 25.
“A 2,000-seat increase in medical schools represents the bare minimum required to address the shortfall in doctors,” Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said. “The government made this decision after carefully considering current educational capacities and regional healthcare conditions.”
The government assigned 1,639 of the 2,000 new medical school admissions quota to 27 universities in non-metropolitan regions. This includes an increase for seven regional national universities, such as Kyungpook National University, from their current enrollment of 49 to 142 students to a capacity of 200 each. Medical school seats at regional universities are set to surpass the enrollment at Seoul National University, which currently stands at 135.
All eight universities in Seoul will not receive any additional seats. Instead, 361 seats will be allocated to five “mini medical schools” in Incheon and Gyeonggi Province, which have fewer than 50 students. The government said this decision was made after “considering regional disparities in medical services between metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas.”
“We are painfully aware that policy decisions based on political interests ultimately compromise public well-being,” Prime Minister Han said, referring to the 351 medical school seats that were cut in 2000 following a backlash from the medical sector during the division of labor in medicine. “The compromise in 2000 led to the doctor shortage we face in 2035 and the conflict and division in 2024,” he added. “This is why we must increase the medical school admissions quota despite the current turmoil.”
The medical community has voiced strong opposition. The Korean Academy of Medical Sciences said, “The government’s unilateral decision will paralyze the medical education and residency training system” and called for a retraction of the policy. Bang Jae-seung, chief of the emergency committee of medical school professors, criticized the government for “charging ahead like a runaway train” and said he would resign on Mar. 25 as planned.
Medical school professors followed suit with statements condemning the government’s decision. Yonsei University and Korea University Medical School professors demanded that the government “withdraw plans to increase medical school enrollment by 2,000 students.” Representatives of medical and pre-medical students also voiced disapproval. “Increasing the number of students will lead to a shortage of cadavers used for dissection practices, making it difficult for us to receive proper training.”
