Medical School Quotas for 2025 Announced Today... Increasing by Over 1,500 Compared to Last Year

Review Process by Daekyo Association Until End of This Month
31 Medical Schools Submit Enrollment Quotas
Court: "Hold Approval Until Mid-May"
Government to Review Until Final Submission at End of May

The government will finalize and announce on the 2nd the medical school admission quotas for the 31 universities where the medical school quotas have been increased for the 2025 academic year. Combining the national and private universities that have disclosed their quotas so far, the number of medical school admissions for the 2025 academic year is expected to increase by around 1,500 compared to last year.

According to the education sector and universities on that day, among the 32 medical schools with increased quotas for the 2025 academic year, 31 universities except for Cha Medical School have decided their admission quotas for next year and submitted changes to the university entrance examination implementation plans to the Korea Council for University Education (KCUE). Cha Medical School, a graduate medical school, is not obligated to change its entrance examination implementation plan and is expected to decide its admission quota within this month.

Earlier, the government allowed each university to reduce up to 50% of the increased medical school admission quotas allocated to them for the 2025 academic year entrance exam. Jeonnam National University, which had not disclosed its admission quota until the day before, finally decided to select a total of 163 students, which is 50% of the increased quota, i.e., 38 students. As a result, all nine regional base national universities will recruit by reducing their increased quotas by 50%. In March, the government allocated 806 out of 2,000 increased quotas to the nine regional base national universities, but if these universities reduce their increased quotas by 50%, the number will decrease to 403.

Among private universities, some such as Sungkyunkwan University and Ulsan University have reduced their increased quotas. Sungkyunkwan University and Ulsan University reportedly applied to reduce their increased quotas from the original 80 to 70. The remaining 19 universities are known to have confirmed their admission quotas reflecting 100% of the originally increased quotas.

Assuming that some private universities that have not disclosed their quotas maintain their increased quotas, the number of medical school admissions for the 2025 academic year is expected to increase by around 1,500 compared to last year. This is a smaller scale than the 2,000 originally proposed by the government. Accordingly, the total quota will increase from the existing 3,058 by about 1,500, reaching the 4,500 range.

The KCUE will hold university entrance examination committees by the end of this month to review the changes to the entrance examination implementation plans submitted by each university. Since some universities may submit their revised plans by mid-month at the latest, the full review is expected to take place after mid-month.

Lee Ju-ho, Deputy Prime Minister for Social Affairs and Minister of Education, held a video conference on the 22nd at the Government Seoul Office in Jongno-gu, Seoul, with presidents of 40 medical schools operating medical colleges, urging the normalization of medical school operations after the allocation of medical school quotas. Photo by Jo Yong-jun jun21@

However, a variable is the court's injunction against the government's medical school quota increase policy on the 30th of last month. The Seoul High Court, during the appeal hearing for the suspension of the medical school quota increase, stated, "Final approval should not be granted before the court's decision," and requested that approval for the increase be withheld until mid-May. It also announced that it would decide whether to grant a provisional injunction between the 13th and 18th.

Previously, medical students, professors, and residents had filed several suspension of execution requests with the court to halt the effect of the government's decision to increase and allocate 2,000 medical school quotas, but the court dismissed these requests. However, the court publicly demanded the government disclose the basis for the increase for the first time. The Ministry of Education and the KCUE maintain that there is no procedural problem since the revision of the entrance examination implementation plans is to be finalized by the end of this month.

However, if the court grants the suspension of execution, subsequent procedures such as KCUE approval will be halted, and the government may face a situation where the confirmation of quotas is temporarily suspended until the outcome of the lawsuit to cancel the medical school quota increase is decided. It is understood that the responsible ministries, the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Ministry of Education, have begun preparing materials related to the basis for the 2,000 quota increase to submit to the court.