National University Medical Schools With Fewer Than 50 Students to Double Enrollment...Quotas by University to Be Allocated in April

Ministry of Education Begins Allocating Detailed Medical School Quotas by University

The Ministry of Education has decided to allocate medical school enrollment quotas to each university by April 2026 in line with its plan to increase medical school admissions for the 2027–2031 academic years. The additional medical school seats will be distributed mainly to national universities outside the Seoul metropolitan area and to small medical schools, in keeping with the policy goal of training regional healthcare professionals and improving educational conditions at small medical schools. For national university medical schools with fewer than 50 students, the upper limit on the increase rate will be raised from the current 50% to 100%.

On February 10, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health and Welfare held a briefing at the Government Complex Seoul and announced this medical school expansion plan.

At the 7th meeting of the Health and Medical Policy Deliberative Committee held on the same day, the government decided to increase the annual training capacity for physicians by an average of 668 students from 2027 to 2031 at 32 medical schools outside Seoul, in order to strengthen regional, essential, and public healthcare. Among the additional medical school seats, all enrollments exceeding the 2024 academic year quota of 3,058 students will be selected as regional doctors.

The Ministry of Education plans to complete the allocation of medical school quotas by the end of April 2026. Although the number of students to be admitted for the 2027 academic year was already announced last year, it is inevitable that these figures will be revised following the Ministry of Health and Welfare's decision to expand medical school admissions. First, in accordance with the enforcement of the Regional Doctors Act, the basic guidelines for university admission procedures of the Korea Council for University Education (KCUE), a consultative body of universities, must be revised. The specific quota for each university will be finalized after deliberation by the Ministry of Education's allocation committee and through procedures such as objections to any quota adjustments.

Vice Minister of Education Choi Eunok said, "In order to meet the admissions schedule for the 2027 academic year, we plan to allocate quotas to each university in April 2026."

Vice Minister Choi said, "Normally, university-specific quotas for a given year are allocated in March, but since the medical school quota has already been set at 5,058 students for the 2025 academic year and is being maintained, a quota reduction procedure is required even if we expand admissions this time." She added, "Because we must go through procedures under the Administrative Procedures Act, such as collecting opinions and handling subsequent objections from universities, the final quotas will be confirmed and allocated in April." She further explained, "After that, universities will prepare revised admission plan proposals and submit them to the Korea Council for University Education (KCUE), and the KCUE will notify each university of the final number of students to be recruited in May 2026."

According to the government announcement made on February 10, 490 students will be added in the first year of expansion, the 2027 academic year, and 613 students will be added each year thereafter. All of the additional students will be required to work as regional doctors.

For national university medical schools with an enrollment of 50 students or more, the increase rate this time cannot exceed 30% of the 2024 admission quota. For medical schools with fewer than 50 students (three schools), a 100% increase is permitted. The increase cap that had previously been under review by the Health and Medical Policy Deliberative Committee was 50% for national universities with fewer than 50 students, but in the final plan announced on February 10 it was raised to 100%. In the case of private universities, those with 50 students or more are subject to an upper limit of 20% on the increase rate, while those with fewer than 50 students are subject to a 30% cap.

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