Forty medical schools nationwide have requested to increase their enrollment quota by up to 2,847 students in 2025 and 3,953 students in 2030.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare released the results of the demand survey for expanding medical school students on Tuesday.

The survey, a follow-up to the “Essential Healthcare Innovation Strategy” announced on Oct. 19, was conducted on 40 medical schools by the ministry and the Ministry of Education for two weeks from Oct. 27 to Nov. 9 to identify the number of medical school students that can be expanded while maintaining the quality of medical education.

Each medical school submitted a demand for expansion.

As a result of the demand survey, medical schools submitted a minimum of 2,151 and a maximum of 2,847 students for 2025, compared to the current capacity of 3,058.

Schools also hoped to continue to increase their capacity, adding a minimum of 2,738 and a maximum of 3,953 students by 2030.

The minimum demand means that each university believes it can provide high-quality medical education with its current capacity, including faculty and educational facilities. In contrast, the maximum demand means that the university wants to increase its capacity, assuming it can secure additional educational facilities.

The health and welfare ministry said that based on the results of the demand survey, it is conducting a feasibility check through the medical education inspection team, which includes members from the medical community, education community, and evaluation experts.

The expert inspection team members are reviewing each university's demand survey submission documents. Afterward, they plan to organize an on-site inspection team to check the contents that are difficult to confirm through written materials alone.

Upon completing the inspection team's review, the ministry will decide on the total number of medical school students for the 2025 academic year by comprehensively considering the results of the review, regional infrastructure, and the university's capacity.

"The demand survey marks the first step in the journey to resolve the long-standing healthcare crisis and shows that universities can more than double their current capacity of 3,058 students with additional investment," said Jun Byung-wang, head of the medical education inspection team.

The government will closely examine the results of the demand survey to determine the total number of students for the class of 2025 and is committed to putting in place a package of local and essential healthcare policies that the expanded medical workforce can work with pride, he added.