[EDITORIALS]Medical School Plan Shows Promise

A framework for a professional medical graduate school was suggested Tuesday by a committee that has promoted the program.

The gist of the framework is to open the door to medical professions to undergraduate students who are not in the premedical department. Any undergraduate student who earn more than 90 credits in longer than two years are entitled to take a Medical Dental Education Eligibility Test, and those who pass the test can proceed to professional medical or dental graduate schools.

We believe the new framework has many positive aspects. First of all, the new system will eradicate the barrier that has barred students who are not admitted in the premedical department from becoming doctors. A door is opened to raise medical professionals with a variety of experiences. Another merit of the system is to make students choose between becoming professional doctors by taking training courses or entering into more academic field by pursuing a Ph. D after graduation.

But there are also possibilities that the introduction of the new school system may cause confusion. Foremost, the initiative may precipitate the phenomenon that college students shun "unpopular majors" after many colleges let students choose their majors from senior years. If a large proportion of students focus on the entrance test of the new course in expense of their undergraduate classes, the new system will be nothing but an extension of the tussle that all high school students have to go through when they enter colleges. Considering the relatively poor educational environment of medical schools of universities located in the provinces, the system could expedite the exodus of students from the local schools to Seoul. The government tried to introduce the professional medical graduate school system once before. Since the new initiative considerably reflects the medical field's opinions and major medical colleges are eager to introduce it, the feasibility of the new system is high. But the government should hear more opinions from outside medical world before making supplements to the plan.