‘Government tries to turn medical schools into quack training centers’

Increasing medical school enrollment by 2,000 students in Korea will require 82 more anatomy professors to teach them. Still, a fundamental issue is the small labor pool itself. The shortage of cadavers will also aggravate further.

Citing these problems, the medical community criticized the government for turning medical schools into "poor quack training centers.”

A team of anatomy professors recently published the results of an April survey of anatomy education conditions at 40 medical schools nationwide in the Journal of Korean Medical Science (JKMS), an international journal.

Four professors jointly conducted the opinion poll. They are Professor Song Chang-ho of the Department of Anatomy at Chonbuk National University College of Medicine, Professor Rhyu Im-joo of the Department of Anatomy at Korea University College of Medicine, Professor Kim In-beom of the Department of Anatomy at the Catholic University of Korea School of Medicine, and Professor Joo Kyeung-min of the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology at Sung Kyun Kwan University College of Medicine.

According to the survey, 3,246 students enrolled in anatomy courses, exceeding the capacity of 3,058 due to additional enrollments and re-taking. Ninety-two anatomy professors taught them, or 4.5 per medical school. The ratio of students per professor was 24.4.

About 450 cadavers were used for anatomy labs per year or 7.4 students per cadaver. According to the researchers, this "represents a poor teaching environment" compared to the United States, where 5.1 students use one cadaver.

Anatomy training conditions also varied by medical school, with eight medical schools in Seoul having better conditions than 32 medical schools in the rest of the country. However, Seoul-based medical schools are not eligible for the enlarged enrollment quota for the 2025 academic year.

On average, there were 6.5 anatomy professors per medical school in Seoul, compared to 3.9 anatomy professors in the rest of the country. The number of students per professor was 20.9 in Seoul, compared to 26.0 in the rest of the country. The average number of teaching assistants in anatomy was 0.8 at medical schools nationwide, but Seoul-area medical schools had an average of 2.0 per program. This is four times the average for medical schools outside Seoul (0.5).

In addition, 6.5 students practiced per cadaver in Seoul and 7.8 in the rest of the country, but the difference was not statistically significant, according to the researchers. This is because medical schools in Seoul have more cadavers (16.9 on average) than the rest of the country (11.0), but they also have more students (109.5 on average in Seoul and 74.1 in the rest of the country).

Based on this, the researchers expected the increase in medical school admissions to "significantly deteriorate the barely maintained anatomy education environment."

The researchers calculated the number of professors and cadavers needed to maintain the current ratio of 24.4 students per anatomy professor and 7.4 students per cadaver if medical school enrollment increases.

The results showed that increasing medical school enrollment by 500 students would require 20 more anatomy professors and 68 more cadavers. An increase of 1,000 students would require 41 more anatomy professors and 135 more cadavers. If medical school enrollment increases by 2,000 students, as the government pushes, 82 more anatomy professors and 270 more cadavers will be needed.

However, they pointed out that the labor pool for anatomy professors is small. Currently, 30 teaching assistants teach anatomy. If medical school enrollment were to increase by 2,000 students, even if all 30 teaching assistants were promoted to professors, there would be a shortfall of 52 professors.

"If the current expansion of medical schools is carried out in a large number in a short period, the poor anatomy education will face great difficulties, and the level of anatomy education will seriously decline," the researchers said. "In the case of a university in South Jeolla Province, which increased the number of students due to the closure of Seonam Medical University, it took about five years to build the educational infrastructure to accommodate the increased number of students."

‘Bureaucrats make light of the importance of medical education’

The study's results prompted criticism from the medical education field, which said the government is "turning medical schools into quack training centers."

Professor Yoo Jin-hong of the Department of Internal Medicine at the Catholic University of Korea School of Medicine criticized the government for "underestimating medical education" and lowering its quality.

Professor Yoo said so in an editorial in the latest issue of JKMS, which carried the survey results on anatomy education conditions.

"Under the current infrastructure, it is very natural that a rapid increase will cause great chaos in the medical school education field," Yoo said, noting that for medical schools that have increased their enrollment from 50 to 200 students, the number of students assigned to each cadaver has increased from five to 20, leading to "the disruption of anatomy cadaver dissection."

In response to Second Vice Minister of Health and Welfare Park Min-soo, who said that "importation could be considered" if there is a shortage of cadavers, Yoo said, "I've never heard of a country exporting cadavers in toto...The vice minister is not a medical school graduate. Therefore, he is insulting not only the anatomy education but also the people who donated the cadaver because he has no idea about the medical school education and its ethics."

Yoo continued, “Medical school education does not mean that students are crammed into a lecture hall and only lectures are given in an infused manner."