Representatives of trainee doctors, who resigned collectively in protest over a hike in medical school enrollment quotas, gather at the Korea Medical Association building in Seoul on Feb. 20, 2024. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Mar. 22 (Korea Bizwire) – As the South Korean government finalizes plans to increase enrollment at medical schools by 2,000 students, a leading voice in the medical community has sounded the alarm about a potential exodus of aspiring doctors disillusioned with the changes.
“Many residents are preparing for medical licensing exams in the United States and Singapore, saying they don’t want to practice under this system,” said Bang Jae-seung, the head of the emergency committee of the council of medical school professors at Seoul National University.
In an interview with MBC Radio on Wednesday, Bang lamented the prospect of South Korea’s brightest minds leaving for opportunities abroad. “It’s already a loss of national competitiveness when engineering talents come into medicine, but can you imagine the shame if those who did opt for medicine end up treating citizens of other countries?” he said.
Bang urged swift dialogue to bring disgruntled residents back into the fold, starting with the government lifting any legal actions against them as a show of good faith for negotiations.
On Tuesday, the government unveiled university-specific quotas under the new 2,000-student increase. A staggering 82% of the expanded slots, 1,639 students, were allocated to schools outside the greater Seoul metropolitan area, with the remaining 18% going to universities in Gyeonggi Province and the city of Incheon. Medical schools in Seoul itself were excluded from the increase.
Bang deemed the regional distribution “nonsensical,” noting one provincial university with an existing quota of 49 students was slated for a class of 200. “Any professor in the field knows we cannot possibly provide a proper education to four times as many students,” he said, stressing the need for proportional expansions in hospital facilities, funding, and faculty.
While the government plans to hire over 1,000 new professors for national medical schools, Bang expressed skepticism, citing the extensive clinical experience required to train new instructors beyond simply holding degrees.
He warned that concentrating 82% of new enrollments in non-metropolitan areas could lead to severe bottlenecks, as graduates will inevitably seek residencies in Seoul for advanced training.
“From professors’ perspectives, the medical reforms people want involve strengthening essential care, regional healthcare and public medicine,” Bang said. “But the new policies don’t address any of those details.”
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
