Korea is reeling from the shockwaves of Chinese startup DeepSeek.

The country's pride as an IT powerhouse has been shaken by concerns that it is falling behind in related fields.

The nation’s future is not bright either. Experts point out that the soil for science and technology has become barren, as the government’s policy of increasing the medical school enrollment quota has made talented students rush to medical schools. The Yoon Suk Yeol administration has also cut the R&D budget drastically.

The outflow of talent from science and engineering schools has intensified since the controversial policy to expand medical schools. University students who chose science and engineering schools are now retaking the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), or suneung in Korean, to get into medical schools.

The 2025 college entrance exam increased the number of medical students by 1,509, but the number of applicants for science and engineering schools plummeted.

According to Jongro Academy, Korea’s largest private educational institute, applicants to the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) dropped 37.9 percent from the previous year in the 2025 college entrance exam. Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), and Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST) also saw applications drop by 25.2 percent, 23.0 percent, and 22.7 percent.

The situation is similar for science and engineering departments at Seoul's top universities.

The number of applicants to science departments at Seoul National University, excluding medical and pharmaceutical departments, dropped by 18.7 percent from 3,134 to 2,529 in 2024. Yonsei University also saw a 9.3 percent decrease in science and engineering applicants, from 2,854 to 2,589.

Korea University, which increased its admissions through regular recruitment, saw an increase in applicants but decreased the competitive ratio from 4.21 to 1 to 4.04 to 1. That was because the number of applicants did not increase as much as the rise in admissions through regular recruitment.

The number of students who make second or third attempts to get into medical schools is increasing rapidly. According to the Ministry of Education and the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation, the number of repeaters who took the CSAT in 2025 totaled 161,784, accounting for 31.0 percent of all test takers, the largest since 2004.

The number of repeaters is expected to increase further to 200,000 for the 2026 CSAT, which will be held this year.

Jongro Academy analyzed the statistics on the number of CSAT takers released by the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation. It said that the number of repeaters taking the 2026 CSAT is expected to be between 190,000 and 200,000. Based on the ratio of repeaters to recent high school graduates, the trend of retakes by year, and the number of high school seniors, the number of repeaters is also expected to reach 202,762. This is the largest number since the 2021 CSAT when there were 269,059 repeaters.

“Repeaters’ breaking the 200,000 mark cannot be ruled out by the current statistical trend,” Jongro Academy said. “The adjustment of the number of medical school recruits for the 2026 academic year is expected to impact the size of the repeaters significantly.”

Some critics pointed out that the policy of expanding medical schools “without preparatory measures” has intensified the phenomenon of shunning science and engineering schools and departments.

“We must start by returning the medical school enrollment quota issue to the starting point immediately,” said Yoo Seung-min, a former member of the National Assembly, one of the harshest critics of the Yoon administration.

“What is shocking to us is that China has gone from being a follower to a leader,” Yoo said on his Facebook page on Sunday. “There is no future for a country where the best students rush to become doctors, judges, and prosecutors,” Yoo said. “Korea's R&D administration needs more efficiency, but its investment should be increased drastically.”

Yoo also appeared on an MBC Radio talk show on Monday, saying, “China has been attracting talents worldwide and developing its own talents for a very long time. In high school, my friends who were good at math, physics, and science said they wanted to become doctors instead of engineering. It's very wrong. To change that, we need a huge reform. We must change the incentive system.”