As Seoul fixes increased medical school enrollment quota, doctors make last-minute appeal to Supreme Court

The medical community on Friday asked the Supreme Court to speed up its decision regarding the government’s increase in the medical school enrollment quota. If the top court does not accept the medical community's request to block the expansion, citing social disruption, doctors' representatives said it would be "crossing a bridge of no return."

At the government’s best, however, a university association unanimously approved the government’s proposal later in the day to increase the number of medical students for the first time in 27 years.

The Korean Council for University Education (KCUE) approved changes to the 2025 university entrance examination implementation plan, reflecting the expansion of medical school students. Minister of Education Lee Joo-ho will announce the implementation plan and recruitment guidelines on May 30.

That means the number of applicants for next year's medical school will be 4,567, an increase of more than 1,509 from the current 3,058.

As the government has vowed not to change the recruitment process, the medical community can only hope that the Supreme Court will stop it before then.

In a news release, Lee Byung-cheol, a lawyer who handles the medical school quota case on behalf of the medical community, said that he has submitted an urgent request for the top court to proceed with the case and a reason for re-appeal. The cases include a re-appeal to the Supreme Court on enforcing the medical school quota and an appeal against the ban on changing the college entrance examination format. If either is upheld, the government must stop the recruitment process.

Lee asked the Supreme Court to hold the enrollment process until a final decision is made if the highest tribunal cannot make a quick decision.

“The education minister has vowed to announce the approval of the implementation plan by May 30, so the court's final decision should be received by May 29," the lawyer said. "If a decision cannot be made by that date, I ask the court to issue an injunction to the minister of education to suspend the publication of the implementation plan and the entrance examination syllabus until the final decision is made."

If the court rejects the application for an injunction, "it would be like crossing a bridge from which there is no return," he said, adding that "the only way for doctors and medical students to return to hospitals and schools is for the judiciary to stop the enrollment quota increase by 2,000.”

‘Both medical school expansion and allocation processes are illegal’

The Medical Professors Association of Korea (MPAK) also maintained that the medical student increase and allocation process are "clearly illegal" and that the Supreme Court must determine their legality.

"For the past 24 years, the Ministry of Health and Welfare has not developed a healthcare development plan, which is required to be developed every five years," MPAK said. “The Constitution guarantees the autonomy of universities, but the ministry forced them to violate the process by sending a letter to confirm the number of seats without amending the necessary academic regulations (to decide on the increase)."

The association noted that the university violated the Higher Education Act by allocating additional seats without considering educational conditions and "lost fairness in the allocation decision process."

It also pointed out that the high court's decision to dismiss the enforcement injunction on the grounds of “public welfare” was "seriously erroneous." The Seoul High Court found that medical students would be harmed by the expansion but refused to grant an injunction based on the "public welfare" of restoring essential and local medical care.

It also emphasized the inability of medical education centers to handle the growing number of students.