University presidents urged not to recruit medical students for 2025

Following the lead of medical students and professors nationwide, the Korean Medical Association (KMA) has urged university presidents to stop recruiting new medical students for the 2025 academic year.

In a written briefing for the fourth meeting on Wednesday, the KMA's Emergency Committee asked the presidents of the 40 universities with medical colleges to “stop recruiting new students for the 2025 academic year” and “no longer participate in President Yoon Suk Yeol's educational and medical manipulations.”

The nation’s largest doctors group pointed out that the president who ordered the expansion of medical schools has already destroyed the democracy of the Republic of Korea with “unconstitutional and anti-human rights emergency martial law,” telling universities not to follow the Yoon regime's instructions any longer.

“The whole nation has come to know that the martial law has arbitrarily and coercively increased the medical school enrollment quota by 2,000 students,” the emergency committee said. “University presidents must come forward and stop the government's educational aggression.”

It also noted that the Ministry of Education, which is supposed to be responsible for the situation, has no will to resolve it. The committee added that if even the university presidents look the other way, the nation’s medical education and healthcare system will be ruined.

“If the medical school enrollment quota increase goes ahead, the medical education system will be plagued by adverse effects for over a decade, producing poorly trained doctors who will treat patients for the rest of their lives. Our healthcare, which is among the best in the world, will go downhill. The longer we put it off, the worse it gets,” it said.

The KMA emphasized that it's not too late, however.

“We implore you not to participate in Yoon's educational and medical manipulation any longer,” it said. “The KMA, which represents all doctors and all levels of the medical profession, hopes that university presidents will return to educational principles and stop recruiting new students for the class of 2025.”

Various organizations representing medical personnel, including medical school deans, professors, and students, have also issued statements calling university presidents to stop recruiting new medical students.