One in Five Successful Candidates Are Graduates of Foreign Medical Schools
This year, the number of foreign medical school graduates among the final passers of the national medical licensing examination (Kuksi) has significantly increased.
According to data submitted by the Ministry of Health and Welfare to the office of Jeon Jin-sook, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, among the 269 final passers of the 89th medical licensing exam announced on the 22nd, 52 (19.3%) were graduates of foreign medical schools.
By country, the largest number were graduates from Hungarian medical schools with 39, while graduates from medical schools in the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, and other countries numbered only 1 to 2 each.
The increase in the proportion of foreign medical school graduates passing the medical licensing exam was a predicted outcome. This is because the majority of domestic medical students chose to take a leave of absence in protest against government medical policies such as increasing the number of medical students.
The expected number of candidates for this medical licensing exam was about 3,200, including fourth-year domestic medical students, previous year exam failures, and foreign medical school graduates, but only about 10% of them actually took the exam. This was because most of the approximately 3,000 fourth-year students did not register due to taking a leave of absence.
On the morning of September 10, medical staff were moving in front of the emergency room of a large hospital in downtown Seoul. Photo by Yonhap News.
The number of passers in the previous 88th medical licensing exam was 3,045. Among them, the proportion of foreign medical school graduates was only 25. In the 87th medical licensing exam, only 32 out of 3,181 passers were foreign medical school graduates.
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