Government grants autonomy to medical schools on admission quotas

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo speaks at a Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters meeting held at the government complex in central Seoul on Friday. [NEWS1]

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said Friday that the government accepts the request from national medical schools to autonomously adjust their admission quota.

Any of the country's 32 medical schools that received an expanded quota by the Education Ministry in March will be able to adjust their admission quota of recently allocated seats by 50 to 100 percent for the upcoming academic year starting next March at their discretion.

The government's lenient gesture comes nearly two months after junior doctors staged a walkout since Feb. 20 to protest against the government's decision to add some 2,000 seats in upcoming medical schools' admission.

Han said the decision is a means to "to proactively protect and normalize the education delivery in medical schools and resolve the impasse between the government and medical sector."

The presidents of six national universities raised a request to the government on Thursday, asking for permission to downsize the admission hike by half for the upcoming admissions.

Of the country’s nine national universities running medical schools, the presidents of Kangwon National University, Kyungpook National University, Gyeongsang National University, Jeju National University, Chungbuk National University and Chungnam National University issued a joint statement, expressing their intention to better align "each school’s academic environment and resources."

They emphasized the need for their active involvement in negotiations with the government, pointing out that "national medical schools outside the greater Seoul area have been assigned the largest number of admission slots."

BY LEE SOO-JUNG [lee.soojung1@joongang.co.kr]