Medical Students Refuse to Return to School Despite Government Measures

Despite the government’s efforts to prevent medical students from repeating a year, only 3% of students have enrolled in the second semester.

According to recent data, only about 600 students have completed their second semester registration at 40 medical schools nationwide, which is only 3.4% of the total 9,000 medical school students.

The enrollment rate of 10 national universities was 3.2%, slightly lower than the average. Furthermore, there were as many as nine medical schools that did not have a single student register for the second semester.

Last July, the government introduced various measures to prevent medical students who refused to attend classes in protest of the increase in medical school enrollment from repeating a grade. These measures included flexible academic management, such as postponing the timing of determining whether or not to repeat a semester from the end of the semester to the end of the academic year.

However, almost no students returned to school even after the second semester began. It was also confirmed that a significant number of medical students who refused to attend classes had joined the military. This year, 308 medical students from 10 national universities enlisted, which is more than six times higher than last year.

As government measures to bring back medical students are not working at all, disruptions to medical school education schedules are becoming increasingly severe. The government had appealed to medical students to return to school by minimizing disadvantages as much as possible, but it seems that these efforts have been unsuccessful.

Education Minister Lee Ju-ho had stated, “We expect our students to return to school as soon as possible and join our efforts to resolve this issue.”

The situation highlights the need for a more effective solution to address the concerns of medical students and ensure the smooth continuation of medical education in the country.