Although medical students have returned to school, there are concerns that medical education may once again be disrupted due to class refusals. With major medical schools reportedly planning to fail third- and fourth-year students this week due to a shortage of class days caused by the refusal, this week is expected to be a critical turning point for the normalization of medical education.
According to the education and medical communities on the 13th, Korea University School of Medicine plans to fail about 110 third- and fourth-year students who have insufficient class days within this week. The students subject to failure are those who have not attended more than one-third of the class days, with over 70 third-year students (more than 80%) and about 40 fourth-year students (48%) being subject to failure.
Yonsei University also plans to finalize the failure of some fourth-year students who have received notice of impending failure on the 15th. Other universities, including Ajou University, Inha University, Jeonbuk National University, and Chonnam National University, are also considering failure for students who do not participate in classes. Soonchunhyang University notified that students who exceed one month of unauthorized absences from the medical school start date will be expelled according to school regulations.
Each school has different regulations, but if a student accumulates 2 to 4 failures, they may be expelled. Some schools already handled medical students who did not participate in classes last year, meaning that another failure this time could result in a second accumulation.
Despite warnings from the government and universities, the refusal to attend classes among medical students is spreading. Medical students from Yonsei University, Sungkyunkwan University, Catholic University, Ulsan University, Korea University, and Kyunghee University, as well as new students from Ajou University, have taken a stand through a class refusal movement. Representatives of medical students from Yonsei University, Sungkyunkwan University, Catholic University, Ulsan University, and Korea University stated in a joint statement on the 9th that they will continue the struggle.
If the collective failure of medical students becomes a reality, it will inevitably disrupt next year's quota for medical students and the normalization of medical education. The Ministry of Education insists that student participation in classes is a priority for determining next year's admissions. On the other hand, the medical community believes that the government should first freeze the admissions quota at 3,058 to persuade students.
As the positions of both sides remain divergent, if the classes of 2024 and 2025 are collectively failed, it may be necessary for all three grades entering next year—2026—to take first-year classes simultaneously. The number of students attending first-year classes is expected to reach 10,000, and both the medical school and the medical community believe that it would be impossible to conduct normal classes in such a situation.
The government is expected to monitor the situation until this week and decide on next year's medical school admissions.