Additional 'Medical Licensing Exam' to be Conducted in 2030 for Medical Students Enrolled in 2024

Flexible Exam and Residency Schedules Planned for Summer Graduates

The government has decided to operate the medical licensing examination flexibly, including conducting additional exams, to ensure that doctors are produced on schedule six years later when the 2024 enrolled students from 40 medical schools return from leave and the academic schedule normalizes.

Yonhap News

According to the Ministry of Education's announcement on the 7th, if the curriculum is operated to have different graduation times for medical students enrolled in 2024 and 2025, medical graduates will be produced starting from the summer of 2030, six years later.

Currently, the medical licensing examination typically conducts practical exams from September to November, followed by written exams in January of the following year, and assigns residents from late January. Considering that students enrolled in 2024 and 2025 will receive diverse education depending on the university, the government plans to conduct additional licensing exams for graduates in August 2030 and take measures to ensure there are no disruptions in resident quota allocation, selection, training, and specialist certification.

Specialist exams will also be conducted additionally so that these summer graduates can obtain their qualifications smoothly from 2033 to 2034, after completing their residency training.

Along with this, the Ministry of Education will invest a total of 606.2 billion KRW this year to expand medical education infrastructure at university hospitals and support medical education innovation. The 32 universities with increased medical school quotas have already newly hired a total of 595 medical school faculty members in the first half of this year (300 at 9 national universities and 295 at 23 private universities). Expansion of medical education spaces, such as remodeling lecture and practice rooms and constructing new buildings, is also underway according to each university’s plan.

To support students’ clinical practice at hospitals, the teaching conditions at university hospitals will also be improved. The Ministry of Education will invest 172.8 billion KRW this year in private medical schools (affiliated hospitals) and provide loans worth about 120 billion KRW to strengthen essential medical capabilities of university hospitals, including expanding medical facilities and equipment. Additionally, by 2028, clinical education training centers will be established at 10 national university hospitals nationwide to provide systematic training such as simulated surgeries for medical students and residents. Plans are also underway to expand practical training hospitals to include various regional medical institutions such as local medical centers and public health centers, mainly centered on metropolitan university hospitals.

To strengthen regional research and development (R&D) capabilities, the Ministry of Health and Welfare will invest 11 billion KRW this year alone. Through comprehensive financial investment, the strategy is to enhance the education and research capabilities of university hospitals and foster them as regional essential medical hubs through regulatory innovation and management system reform at national university hospitals. Furthermore, 9.9 billion KRW will be allocated for master's and doctoral training, and 76.8 billion KRW for research support, to help residents grow into physician-scientists who can lead the biohealth industry based on clinical experience.

In addition, the Ministry of Health and Welfare will continue a pilot project to reduce residents’ working hours from 80 to 72 hours per week, establish a new budget of 233.2 billion KRW for innovating resident training environments including support for supervising physicians, and provide 41.5 billion KRW in training allowances for residents and full-time instructors.

The Ministry of Education is also promoting the establishment of a provisional "Medical Education Committee" as an advisory body to support the development of medical education and strengthen social accountability. The committee will consist of government officials, medical education experts, hospital representatives, and local government officials. Moreover, the budget for the Korea Institute of Medical Education and Evaluation to thoroughly assess the impact of quota increases and the appropriateness of future implementation plans for 30 medical schools with more than a 10% increase in enrollment will be significantly expanded from 400 million KRW last year to 2.9 billion KRW this year.

The Ministry of Education stated, "We will monitor the educational operation status of each medical school through dedicated personnel and identify necessary support measures."

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