Medical professors are at a loss over unprecedentedly condensed classes

Medical students are returning to school, but the educational environment is far from ready.

Many medical schools are struggling to fill class schedules with online lectures due to a shortage of professors and infrastructure to educate returning students. Given the situation, some say, “It would have been better if they returned in March next year.”

With the decision to allow boycotting students to resume their studies in the second semester, medical schools are busy preparing for classes. First-year pre-medical students from the 2024 and 2025 school years will attend split-class sessions and participate in summer sessions without interruption.

Their graduation timing are as follows: fourth-year medical students (medical course) in August 2026; third-year medical course students in February or August 2027; second-year medical course students in February 2028; and first-year medical course students in February 2029.

In Korea, medical education is a six-year undergraduate program divided into a two-year pre-medical phase and a four-year medical phase, differing from graduate-entry models common in countries like the United States.

First- and second-year pre-medical course students will advance to the next grade in March 2026. Except for fourth-year medical course students and some third-year medical course students subject to the “fall semester graduation,” the second-semester classes will be compressed into six months to catch up with students who have already returned.

These measures are a result of the issue of producing new doctors. It is also the reason why the government is considering additional national medical exams.

Last year, only 382 students took the 89th national medical examination, which was held for the first time after the announcement of a 2,000-student increase in medical school enrollment, and 269 passed. This number is less than one-tenth of the 3,045 doctors produced the previous year. Although the number of applicants for this year's practical exam increased to 1,450, it is still only 45 percent of the number before the conflict between the government and the medical community.

Given the medical workforce shortage, resuming classes can no longer be delayed.

However, medical school professors are concerned about a decline in educational quality. Over the past 17 months of the government-doctor conflict, not only medical students and residents but also professors have left their schools. The newly recruited specialists lack sufficient teaching experience, and there are insufficient resources to educate the students in the 2024 and 2025 classes, who have to take classes together in what the schools call “doubling.”

Professors note that online lectures are the only viable option in this situation. A significant number of medical schools, including Wonkwang University College of Medicine and Kyung Hee University College of Medicine, are preparing for online classes.

Wonkwang University College of Medicine will operate an academic supplementation period for the entire month of August before the start of the second semester. This will be an online class for first- and second-year pre-medical students and students in the medical course. The second semester will begin on Sept. 1. However, the professors who have to teach these students are deeply concerned. They have to worry not only about the classes but also about conflicts between the already returned students and the newly returning students.

We have to secure as much time as possible for education, so the professors are under a lot of psychological pressure,” said a professor at Wonkwang University College of Medicine. “We are trying to cover a one-year course in six months, so the academic schedule will inevitably be tight until February next year.”

Due to the unprecedented nature of the situation, it is challenging to predict the potential problems that may arise. The faculty are uncertain about how the plans they have carefully devised will work in practice, which is causing anxiety, the professor added, mentioning that they are considering various measures to prevent conflicts between existing and returning students.

The professor expressed concern about whether the education provided under these circumstances will enable students to acquire the necessary skills to become doctors.

“I have no idea how academic achievement and medical competence will turn out. There has never been a case where a one-year program was compressed into six months,” he said. “I don’t know if medical education can be normalized under these adverse conditions or if doctors trained this way can guarantee quality. Research and long-term plans are needed in this area.”

There is also a shortage of professors. In particular, provincial medical schools have experienced a significant number of professors leaving due to the prolonged conflict between the government and the medical community. Medical schools that already have insufficient faculty members are considering replacing classes with video lectures because professors cannot allocate more time to teaching due to their clinical duties.

“To keep up with the academic schedule, we have to hold classes not only during vacations but also on weekends and at night. Even then, we can barely meet the required number of class days, but most professors cannot teach night classes due to their medical duties,” a professor at another provincial medical school said. “In the end, the only option seems to be to pre-record the class content and conduct online lectures.”

“This will inevitably lead to subpar education, and the medical school education will not be able to proceed properly for the next few years. I sometimes think it would have been better if they returned next March,” the professor said. “However, such a situation might result in even a 'tripling' – in which the three classes of 2024, 2025, and 2026 are forced to take classes together. There is no clear solution, however hard I might try.”