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Court dismisses medical professors' lawsuit over gov't enrollment quota

Published: 21 Mar. 2025, 17:20

CHO JUNG-WOO
[email protected]

A person walks by the Korea University College of Medicine building in Seongbuk District, northern Seoul, on March 21. [YONHAP]

A Seoul court on Friday dismissed a lawsuit filed by medical professors seeking to overturn the government’s decision to increase the enrollment quota for freshmen at medical schools.

The ruling marked the first verdict on lawsuits filed by medical personnel and students against the government's expansion of medical school admissions announced last year.

The Seoul Administrative Court dismissed the lawsuit brought by the Medical Professors Association of Korea against the education minister and health minister, ruling that the case did not qualify as an administrative complaint and that the professors were not eligible to file it.

The court stated that the professors “did not qualify as plaintiffs to request the revocation” of the education minister’s decision.
It added that the health minister’s announcement on the quota increase was merely a “public disclosure of an internal administrative decision,” adding that it is “difficult to consider the health minister a valid subject” of the lawsuit, as the announcement to increase enrollment quotas was made in accordance with the education minister’s decision.

The association of medical professors filed its lawsuit in March last year, arguing that the government’s decision was invalid because, under the Higher Education Act, the health minister does not have the authority to determine university enrollment quotas.

Previously, the Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s dismissal and rejection of the professors’ requests to revoke the decision in June last year.

In February last year, the Ministry of Health and Welfare announced its plan to increase the medical school enrollment quota by 2,000, raising it from 3,058 to 5,058.

The government’s announcement led to mass resignations and leaves of absence among junior doctors and students in protest, plunging the country into a medical crisis.

Following fierce oppositions from the medical community and negotiations, the quota for 2025 was set at 4,567, with the Education Ministry finalizing the number after receiving applications from individual schools.

Amid the persisting deadlock, Education Minister Lee Ju-ho on March 7 announced a conditional decision to set the medical school enrollment quota for 2026 at 3,058 — the same number as before the government proposed increasing admissions by 2,000 places a year earlier — if all medical students returned to class by the end of March.

In a statement on Friday, the Korea Association of Medical Colleges, which represents the deans of 40 medical schools and graduate medical programs, urged students to return to school, saying it would “protect the quota of 3,058 for next year’s admissions.”

Friday was the deadline for students accepted to three medical schools — Yonsei University, Korea University and Kyungbok University — to finalize their enrollment.

BY CHO JUNG-WOO [[email protected]]