30 Medical Schools Evaluated Annually for 6 Years... Possible Closure if Failed

Uipyungwon Focuses Evaluation on 'Educational and Clinical Practice Resources'
"Medical Education Quality Must Be Maintained Despite Rapid Increase in Enrollment"
Regional Medical Schools Say, "Cannot Pass Without Government Support"

The Korea Institute of Medical Education and Evaluation (KIMEE), which assesses and accredits the quality of medical education in Korea, announced that it will conduct an annual major change evaluation for six years on 30 medical schools whose admission quotas have increased by more than 10%. Some medical school officials expressed concerns, saying, "Realistically, it will be impossible to pass the KIMEE evaluation without government support."

Anduk Seon, President of the Korea Institute of Medical Education and Evaluation, is delivering opening remarks at the briefing session on the major change evaluation plan held at 3 p.m. on the 30th at the Bankers Hall in Jung-gu, Seoul.
Photo by Taewon Choi peaceful1@

On the 30th, KIMEE held a briefing session on the major change evaluation plan at the Bankers Hall in Jung-gu, Seoul, and announced this. Ahn Deok-seon, president of KIMEE, said, "In the case of universities where the medical school quota has increased two to three times, not only professors but also students and the general public have expressed many concerns about whether proper education is possible," adding, "Medical schools must specifically present, based on data, what they are preparing, how they will recruit professors, how they will expand educational facilities, and how they will secure educational finances."

He also explained the background for applying 51 criteria instead of the 15 criteria used in 2017. President Ahn said, "At the time of the closure of Seonam University, Jeonbuk Medical School and Wonkwang Medical School expanded their quotas by about 20%. In that situation, it was judged that the 15 criteria were sufficient for verification," adding, "However, this time, the increase is not 20% but more than 200%."

He also mentioned that the existing quantitative indicator standards were not raised to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings and conflicts. President Ahn explained, "There were opinions internally that some quantitative indicator values should be slightly raised," but "at this point, raising quantitative indicator values could cause unnecessary misunderstandings and conflicts, so we have tentatively concluded that we can sufficiently evaluate the universities' preparedness without unreasonable changes to the quantitative indicators."

KIMEE will conduct an annual major change evaluation for six years starting next year on 30 medical schools whose quotas increase by more than 10%. If a medical school fails to obtain accreditation in this evaluation, corrective measures will be taken, and in the worst case, closure procedures may be initiated. KIMEE's existing regular evaluations are conducted every 2 to 6 years depending on the previous evaluation results. However, when there is a significant change factor in the education level of each medical school, such as an increase in admission quotas by more than 10%, KIMEE conducts a separate major change evaluation.

The major change evaluation selects 51 evaluation items out of the 92 items in the 'Medical Education Accreditation Standards (ASK2019)' that KIMEE usually uses. In particular, KIMEE stated that it will focus on the 'educational resources' and 'clinical practice resources' areas.

In the educational resources area, educational facilities, practice resources, and securing educational expertise are evaluated. Specifically, on-site evaluations are conducted on facilities such as lecture rooms and laboratory practice rooms, inventory of equipment, facility management personnel, budget allocation for these, securing individual professors' offices, and professors' research spaces and facilities. The scale of professor recruitment is assessed based on whether an appropriate number of full-time professors in basic medical sciences, medical education, medical humanities, and clinical medicine, as recommended by the World Federation for Medical Education, are secured according to the increased number of students.

Regarding the 'clinical practice resources' area, KIMEE plans to verify whether there are sufficient patients with various diseases and enough patients to allow students to gain appropriate clinical experience, and whether sufficient clinical practice facilities are secured for students to gain appropriate clinical experience.

Example of How to Write a Major Change Plan.
Photo by Taewon Choi peaceful1@

KIMEE also explained the specific method of preparing the major change plan on the day. Hwang Ji-young, chair of the accreditation system committee, explained assuming a medical school whose quota increased from 50 to 100 students. He said, "If the anatomy department of this medical school originally consisted of 3 professors, 1 assistant, and 1 technician, after the increase, they must disclose a faculty recruitment plan such as 5 professors, 1 assistant, and 1 technician." He also advised that the plan should include ▲ conducting face-to-face lectures in a large lecture hall that can accommodate 100 students as before ▲ conducting discussion classes in 5 groups of 20-21 students instead of 3 groups of 16-18 students ▲ dividing cadaver dissection and tissue practice into 2 groups to proceed simultaneously.

Medical school officials attending the session conveyed to KIMEE the demand for specific quantitative standards. In response, Heo Jeong-sik, chair of the accreditation standards committee, said, "There are many requests to present quantitative figures, but unfortunately, we cannot clearly say '1+1=2,'" adding, "We will try to present what can be reasonably suggested by the committee on this matter." President Ahn also said, "This was one of the issues KIMEE has been seriously considering. We are currently conducting tentative research."

There was also a demand to request government support at the KIMEE level. An official from Wonkwang University Medical School pointed out, "To meet KIMEE's evaluation standards, the only way is not to admit new students next year," adding, "Especially for local private universities, the university headquarters think this (KIMEE evaluation) is an unsolvable and impossible situation."

He continued, "The only entity that can solve this problem is the government. I think it is reasonable for the government to promote measures such as appointing faculty at each university and designating and operating large hospitals with a certain number of beds or more as teaching hospitals in situations where there are not enough patients necessary for education," and requested, "Please make recommendations for the government to prepare for future concerns at the KIMEE level as well."

Meanwhile, KIMEE stated that it is reviewing whether to comply with the Ministry of Education's recommendation to receive prior review when changing evaluation standards, methods, and procedures. A KIMEE official said, "We have submitted an objection and conveyed our position," but added, "Since the Ministry of Education has not accepted it, whether to receive prior review is still under consideration."

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