"Increase in Quotas from 2025 Academic Year"... Government Conducts Nationwide Medical School Enrollment Demand Survey

Government Plan: Minimum of 80 Students per Small Medical School
12 Medical Schools with 50 or Fewer Students, 510 Students to be Increased as Planned

The government will begin a demand survey on the desired scale of medical school quota expansion by medical schools nationwide starting on the 26th, in order to increase the medical school quota, which has been fixed at 3,058 students for 18 years, from the 2025 college entrance year. The Ministry of Health and Welfare announced the "Regional and Essential Medical Care Innovation Implementation Plan" containing these details on the same day. This is intended to draft a blueprint for the scale of medical school quotas, which was omitted at the "Essential Medical Care Innovation Strategy Meeting" presided over by President Yoon Seok-yeol on the 19th.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The government has the idea, based on expert opinions, that the student quota per small-scale medical school should be at least 80 students. Among the 40 medical schools nationwide, 17 are small-scale medical schools with an admission quota of 50 or fewer students. Of these, 12 are regional medical schools excluding five medical schools in the metropolitan area such as Gachon University and Sungkyunkwan University. If the quotas of these medical schools increase to 80 students, the total medical school quota must be increased by at least 510 students. To this end, the Ministry of Health and Welfare, together with the Ministry of Education, will conduct a survey starting today on the current educational capacity and future investment plans, including faculty and facilities, at each medical school. First, they plan to ask medical schools nationwide to present specific additional admission quota sizes.

As the collapse of essential medical infrastructure in regional areas has become visible, most regional medical schools are expected to be proactive about expanding admission quotas. Regional medical schools have medical education conditions such as full-time professors with over 10 years of clinical experience and affiliated teaching hospitals, but have struggled with the supply and demand of essential medical residents due to the intensifying concentration in the metropolitan area.

The government plans to form a medical education inspection team from next month to review the validity of the quota increase demands submitted by each medical school. The team will consist of experts including the head (Director of Health and Medical Policy at the Ministry of Health and Welfare), medical and educational professionals, evaluation experts, and officials from the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Ministry of Education. They will review the quota increase plan documents of medical schools and prepare a final report on the demand and capacity for quota increase based on on-site inspection results. The Ministry of Health and Welfare stated, "Based on the demand survey and inspection results, we will prioritize increasing quotas at medical schools with capacity starting from the 2025 college entrance year, and gradually increase quotas at medical schools that have demand but need additional educational capacity from 2026 onward."

The establishment of new medical schools, demanded by the opposition parties, is a lower priority. Even if the admission quotas of existing medical schools are increased, it takes 10 years to train doctors, so there is not much time. It is pointed out that establishing a new medical school takes at least 10 years to accept students due to complicated procedures such as securing 110 full-time faculty members and having a teaching hospital with more than 500 beds.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare reiterated that it will also promote a policy package to encourage existing doctors to enter regional and essential medical fields. This is in response to the medical community's criticism that the cause of gaps in essential and regional medical care is "not a shortage of doctors, but low compensation relative to effort and the risk burden such as legal responsibility." For example, they will expand compensation for severe emergency, high-difficulty, and high-risk medical procedures and introduce a public policy fee schedule that strengthens compensation for essential medical care with low fees. They also proposed measures to alleviate civil and criminal burdens on essential medical workers, such as expanding special exceptions for criminal punishment in essential medical fields and supporting medical liability insurance enrollment.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare once again stated that it will communicate not only with the medical community but also with civic groups as stakeholders in the medical school quota discussion. The Korean Medical Association insists that discussions on medical school quotas should be conducted only through the medical issue consultation body, a medical-government organization, according to the "9th Medical-Government Agreement." However, although 14 consultation meetings have been held since early this year, it is known that there has been little progress. This is due to the large difference in views between the government and the Korean Medical Association on expanding medical school quotas.

In response, the Ministry of Health and Welfare emphasized, "In addition to the consultation body, we will broadly collect opinions through the Health and Medical Policy Deliberation Committee, which includes various health and medical professions, experts, and consumer groups, related organization meetings, and visits to regional medical sites." Minister Cho Kyu-hong said, "Expanding the number of doctors is an unavoidable task to prepare for the super-aged population and stabilize medical supply and demand. We will promptly proceed with related procedures to decide the scale of quota expansion."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.