Regular general meeting held… “The start date of the semester may be postponed to the 16th of next month for students on leave of absence.”
Medical school graduates on the move
(Seoul = Larose.VIP) Reporters Kim Jan-di, Seo Hye-rim, and Oh Jin-song = While the medical community is in turmoil, with medical students taking leave of absence in response to the government’s policy to increase the number of medical schools, a group of 40 medical school deans across the country has decided on the scale of medical school expansion that universities can accommodate. It was repeatedly stated that there were 350 people.
The Korean Association of Medical Colleges and Graduate Schools of Medicine (KAMC, Association of Medical Schools) held a regular general meeting at Fraser Place Central in Jung-gu, Seoul on the afternoon of the 27th and discussed current issues in the medical field, such as increasing the number of medical schools.
The meeting lasted for about three hours with deans from 25 medical schools across the country attending, and the deans reaffirmed that the number of medical schools that universities can accommodate is 350.
KAMC Chairman Shin Chan-soo (Seoul National University School of Medicine Professor) said after the meeting, “The deans confirmed again that the number of students that can be increased for the 2025 entrance exam is 350.”
Even before the government announced the size of the medical school increase by 2,000, KAMC had stated that the appropriate size of increase was about 350 students, which was reduced at the time of the division of medicine in 2000.
Chairman Shin said, “The deans of each school are communicating with students, but communication with the government has been cut off.” He added, “The door needs to be open for mediation, but the door is still closed.”
He added, “What we can do is to delay the start date of the semester until at most March 16th to prevent students (who have taken a leave of absence) from repeating a grade.”
According to the Ministry of Education, the number of medical students who applied for leave of absence in protest against the government’s policy to increase the number of medical schools exceeded 13,000 as of the previous day. This is approximately 70.2% of medical school students nationwide.
Prolonged mass exodus of medical residents, medical staff remaining in hospital
KAMC has been raising its voice calling for an urgent solution to this situation as chaos erupted not only in hospitals but also in medical schools, such as the mass resignation of residents and the temporary leave of absence of medical students after the government announced an increase in the number of medical schools.
As the government and the medical community are running parallel paths regarding the scale of medical school expansion, an atmosphere has been created that requires doctors to play a role in resolving conflicts as mentors and senior doctors in charge of medical school education.
KAMC admitted that each medical school submitted the results of the survey on demand for increased staff ‘unreasonably’ and urged them to reconsider.
KAMC said, “We acknowledge that we submitted to the educational authorities an unreasonable expected number of students to increase the number of students in light of the actual educational conditions of each university (graduate school) during the demand survey conducted by the Ministry of Education last year,” and added, “We request the withdrawal of the plan to increase the number of students by 2,000 students.”
They have also requested that the submission deadline be postponed in relation to the Ministry of Education’s request on the 22nd to 40 universities nationwide with medical schools to submit the demand for medical school seats for the 2025 school year by March 4th.
KAMC said, “Due to the recent issue of medical school expansion, a large number of medical school students have taken a leave of absence and normal academic operation has become difficult, a social consensus is needed for medical school expansion,” adding, “The application deadline for medical school student quota for the 2025 academic year will be postponed until after a social consensus is reached.” “Please do it,” he asked.
dindong@yna.co.kr
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