One in five new doctors went to medical school overseas
Published: 26 Jan. 2025, 16:31
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- LEE SOO-JUNG
- [email protected]
![Three medical professionals walk in a hospital in Seoul on Jan. 14. [NEWS1]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/01/26/88e4bc83-edaf-4635-ba17-efa5bcbcda36.jpg)
Three medical professionals walk in a hospital in Seoul on Jan. 14. [NEWS1]
Nearly one out of every five doctors who passed the state medical qualification exam graduated from overseas medical schools, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said Sunday.
Of 269 doctors who obtained their medical license this year, 52, or 19.3 percent, studied at foreign institutions.
By country, 39 new doctors hold diplomas issued by Hungarian medical schools. Russia, Britain and Kyrgyzstan produced two doctors each. Norway, New Zealand, the United States, Brazil, Uzbekistan, Ukraine and Australia follow with one new doctor each.
The two former state-run medical exams certified 3,181 doctors in 2023 and 3,045 last year. In both years, doctors holding foreign diplomas accounted for around one percent of the successful candidates — 32 in 2023 and 25 last year. Thus, the number of newly certified doctors who studied abroad has doubled over a year.
The recent exam was convened on Jan. 9 and 10, and the results were announced on Wednesday. A total of 269 were qualified among 382 test-takers, marking an acceptance ratio of 70.4 percent.
Although more than 3,000 candidates were supposed to take the exam earlier this month, only 391 had registered for it. It appeared that domestic medical students in their fourth and final year opted out of taking the exam as part of an academic boycott of governmental health care reforms.
Newly certified doctors are eligible to apply for training at general and tertiary hospitals nationwide if medical institutions post employment announcements.
BY LEE SOO-JUNG [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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