hankyoreh

A sign reading “An ill-prepared increase in medical school admissions will damage medical education” hangs on a doorway at a medical school in Seoul on March 20, 2024, amid a month-long walkout by junior doctors over a government plan to increase medical school enrollment caps. (Yonhap)

The South Korean government’s move to effectively finalize a 2,000-student increase in the nationwide medical college admission cap next year has led to an intensifying outcry from the medical community.

It marks a new stage in the conflict between the government and physicians, with an increased likelihood of a joint response by physician groups in addition to the mass submission of resignations by members of medical college faculty associations.

After the government’s announcement Wednesday afternoon on the allocation of medical college seats, medical student and physician groups vehemently criticized the policy, which they said was “unacceptable.”

In a statement issued the same day, the Korea Association of Medical Colleges said the approach was “no way to learn medicine.”

“With a shortage of cadavers leading to inadequate anatomy training, students will end up becoming physicians through forced promotions while participating in pro forma practical training,” the group warned.

“We will not accept this unilateral announcement by the administration, and the students will not back down,” it asserted.

The Korean Academy of Medical Sciences warned that “society will suffer as a result of the government’s high-handed decision” and called for the “withdrawal of all past measures.”

With no change in the government’s approach, the likelihood of a united response by physician groups has grown. So far, the groups have been reacting individually to the medical college admission cap increase policy — but in the wake of the allocation announcement, signs of groups uniting in their response have been visible.

In a Wednesday briefing, Cho Yun-jung, the chairperson of the public relations committee for the Medical Professors Association of Korea (MPAK) emergency committee, announced that “three medical groups will be holding an ad hoc general meeting at 8 pm this evening,” adding that they would “jointly discuss” ideas for responding to the medical college admission cap announcement.

In addition to the MPAK, representatives of the Korean Medical Student Association and the Korean Intern Resident Association also planned to participate in the online meeting that day. This would bring together groups representing medical faculty, medical students, and interns/residents in one place.

The government’s announcement Wednesday on the allocation of new medical college seats effectively finalized the planned 2,000-student increase. The only remaining procedure before the cap is officially raised consist of notifications to individual colleges, approval by the Korean Council for University Education, and amendment of the enforcement plan for university admission procedures for the 2025 academic year.

But Cho stressed that “a request has been submitted for an injunction to reverse the increase, and the court’s decision has not yet been announced.”

“We don’t believe it is now impossible for the increase to be reversed,” she added.

Medical college faculty members also remained firm in their commitment to tendering their resignations in response to the government’s unilateral announcement of allocation results.

As of Wednesday, medical college professors affiliated with five major Seoul hospitals clearly indicated that they all planned to submit en masse resignations. The emergency leadership committee for professors at the Korea University Medical Center issued a statement the same day demanding the reversal of the 2,000-student increase in the admission cap and announcing that members would tender their resignations on Monday, March 25, if the policy continues to be enforced.

Medical college emergency committees at Seoul National University and Yonsei University likewise announced plans to submit en masse resignations on March 25. The emergency committees for the University of Ulsan and the Catholic University of Korea — which use Asan Medical Center as a training hospital — also voted to tender resignations.

The medical college faculty emergency committee for Sungkyunkwan University, whose roughly 400 members include professors at Samsung Medical Center, decided on Tuesday to collect resignations to submit simultaneously at an appropriate time.

The administration referred to the medical world’s activities as a “show of force.”

In a Wednesday briefing on medical reforms, Park Min-soo, the second vice minister of health said that the 2,000-student figure had been “decided upon on the basis of over 130 consultations with the health care community and all corners of society over the course of a year and scientific data.”

“Despite these discussions, the medical community still opposed it and carried out a show of force,” he said. 

By Lim Jae-hee, staff reporter

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]