Yonsei University Medical School Professors "Withdraw the Increase... Political Slogan Ignoring Conditions"

The Korean Medical Students Association Also Issues a Statement: "There Is a Shortage of Cadavers for Dissection"

Professors from Yonsei University College of Medicine, Severance Hospital, Gangnam Severance Hospital, and Yongin Severance Hospital issued a statement on the 20th demanding that "the government withdraw its plan to increase medical student admissions by 2,000."

They argued, "The hasty policy to increase medical school admissions will degrade medical education in our country to a developing nation level, opening the prologue to a dark history," and stated, "Increasing medical school admissions while abandoning 15,000 subsequent generations (residents and medical students) who have submitted resignation letters and leave of absence requests will yield no positive effect."

They added, "The policy to increase admissions by 82% in non-metropolitan areas and 18% in metropolitan areas is merely a political slogan that completely disregards educational conditions," and said, "This is a dictatorial decision that will cause confusion in medical education settings going forward, and a political card disrupting the educational ecosystem ahead of the general election."

Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

The Korean Medical Association and 26 specialty societies also stated in their position paper, "The government is packaging its unilateral decision without consensus from the medical community under the name of justice and medical reform," and warned, "The government's unilateral decision will paralyze medical education and residency training systems."

They continued, "The Medical Association and the 26 societies will stand with and support the medical community until their demands are accepted," and urged, "The government should withdraw all previous measures and resolve public anxiety through dialogue and negotiation to prevent the collapse of the medical field."

The Korean Medical School Student Association (KMSA) also released a statement immediately after the government announcement, saying, "If the increase is implemented, students will not be able to properly conduct dissection practice due to a shortage of cadavers and will only go through formalistic practice, being forced to advance and become doctors." They added, "We will strongly demand universities accept leave of absence requests, and have completed legal review for administrative litigation in case leave requests are rejected."

The movement of medical students engaging in collective leave of absence is growing. According to the Ministry of Education, a survey conducted the previous day targeting 40 medical schools nationwide found that the number of "valid leave of absence applications" (submitted following procedures stipulated by school regulations, including parental consent and department head signature) totaled 512 cases across 11 schools.

In the past eight days alone, 2,926 valid leave of absence requests have been submitted.