Seoul warns to punish university for blocking medical school admission increase

The Ministry of Education has targeted Pusan National University (PNU) for halting its plans to increase the number of medical students by 2025.

The ministry publicly expressed regret and warned that it could impose administrative penalties, including suspension of recruitment if the university fails to revise its academic rules through re-discussion.

On Wednesday, Vice Minister of Education Oh Seok-hwan held an urgent briefing and said the ministry finds it “regretful” for PNU that the faculty council rejected the revision of the school rules reflecting the increase in medical school students.

Later in the day, Pusan National University President Cha Jeong-in held an interim executive meeting and decided to ask the faculty council to reconsider the revision.

Pusan National University was allotted 75 students to increase its medical school enrollment from 125 to 200 for the 2025 academic year but decided to increase only 38 students, or 50 percent of the allotment. The university submitted the revision to the faculty council on Tuesday, but the council rejected it.

According to the ministry, of the 32 universities that are increasing the number of medical students, 20 are revising their academic rules, like Pusan National University. The remaining 12 have completed the revision.

"According to Article 6 of the Higher Education Act and Article 28, Paragraph 3 of the Enforcement Decree, the number of medical school enrollment quota for each university must be set according to the decision by the Minister of Education, and if it is not followed, a corrective order can be issued under Article 60 of the Higher Education Act," Oh said. "As universities have submitted their requests to increase the number of medical students, the ministry urges them to gather opinions within the university and complete the revision of the academic regulations."

According to Article 60 of the Higher Education Act, the Ministry of Education can reduce admissions, abolish departments, and suspend student recruitment if the university fails to fulfill the corrective order.

"As Pusan National University has stated that there is no disagreement with the need to expand the medical students, we hope that the university will soon reconsider the revision of its bylaws and reflect the revised bylaws that reflect the expansion of the medical students," Vice Minister Oh said. "The ministry will closely monitor the revision of bylaws by universities to ensure that they are within the scope of the law."

Asked if this stance was pressure on Pusan National University, he said, "The university has to go through the application process for the allocated quota, which is confirmed through the selection committee of the Korean Council for University Education (KCUE), and the university has to reflect it in the academic regulations. It is a process set by the law, so the schools must carry it out by the law."

If Pusan University rejects the revised bylaws even through reconsideration, Oh said, "The Administrative Disposition Committee will comprehensively judge and dispose of various relationships. I believe that the university will not violate the law. I understand that Pusan University has also gone through the reconsideration process and operates in the manner prescribed by the law."

Concerning the submission of data as the basis for increasing the medical school enrollment quota as demanded by the court, Vice Minister Oh said the ministry would "sincerely explain" the evidence for the increase in medical school students. However, he noted that the medical school admission allocation committee is not required to keep minutes of its meetings, and the court did not request them.

"Please understand that we promised not to disclose the names of the members of the allocation committee and the details of the discussions from the time the committee was formed to consider the members who had difficulty participating in the sensitive policy process," Oh said.

Oh also emphasized that the ministry has formed a “Medical Education Support Task Force” to discuss improving medical education conditions.

"For the 32 medical schools scheduled to increase the number of students, we have surveyed the current status of eight factors, including faculty, facilities, and equipment, the demand for improving educational conditions over the next seven years, and financial investment plans, and are preparing a budget support plan based on the needs of the universities," he said. "We are listening to the voices of academia and the field through medical education expert meetings so that the increase in medical school seats can serve as an opportunity to develop medical education."