Pusan National University’s Graduate School of Medicine (Yonhap)
SEOUL, June 19 (Korea Bizwire) — Medical schools in Hungary are gaining the spotlight as an alternative route to obtain a doctor’s license without graduating from a medical school in South Korea.
A total of 409 individuals who graduated from foreign medical schools took the medical licensing examination in South Korea between 2001 and 2023, said Rep. Shin Hyun-young of the main opposition Democratic Party, citing data compiled by the the Korea Health Personnel Licensing Examination Institute.
What’s particularly notable is that, during the period from 2001 to 2005, the majority of 105 individuals graduated from medical schools in the Philippines.
However, from 2016 to 2023, the majority of 118 individuals graduated from medical schools in Hungary.
The rise of Hungarian medical schools can be attributed to their high success rate in the Korean medical licensing examination.
Only 17.9 percent of Filipino medical school graduates passed the examination from 2001 to 2023, whereas an impressive 82.4 percent of Hungarian medical school graduates passed the test.
Consequently, the number of applicants from Hungarian medical schools increased from one person in 2015 to 18 individuals in 2023.
In contrast, the number of applicants from Filipino medical schools decreased from 34 people in 2001 to only one person in 2009, ultimately leading to their complete removal from the list.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
