The Ministry of Health and Welfare decided at the 7th Health and Medical Policy Deliberation Committee held on the 10th at Government Complex Seoul to increase medical school enrollment by an annual average of 668 students for five years from 2027 to 2031 at 32 medical schools outside Seoul. The total increase will be 3,342 students.
Accordingly, the medical school freshman quota will rise from 3,058 in the 2024 academic year to 3,548 in 2027, and expand to 3,671 in 2028 and 2029. Starting in 2030, if the public medical school and the newly established regional medical schools each recruit 100 students, the total quota will be around 3,871.
Among the increased slots, all students beyond the 2024 academic year quota (3,058) will be selected through the "regional physician track." To reduce the initial educational burden from the increase, only 490 students—80% of the planned increase for existing medical schools—will be added in 2027.
The committee also approved the "plans to improve medical school educational conditions" and the "plan to train regional, essential, and public healthcare personnel." The specific quotas by university are slated to be finalized in April after deliberation by the Ministry of Education's allocation committee and an objection process.
According to the ministry, the timing when this increase will translate into more personnel in clinical settings will be after 2033. From 2033 to 2037, the additional physicians produced are estimated at a total of 3,542, or an annual average of 708. Of these, all additional personnel from existing medical schools will serve as regional physicians.
Students selected as regional physicians will receive tuition and living expense support while enrolled and must work for 10 years after graduation at regional public healthcare institutions and the like. The applicable regions are the nine areas excluding Seoul.
The committee said it reflected a physician supply-and-demand outlook based on 2037 in calculating the size of the increase. Analysis using a demand-supply model estimated a shortage of 4,724 in 2037, and concluded that 4,124 more must be trained after excluding 600 personnel to be produced by the public medical school and newly established regional medical schools.
This figure was allocated in proportion to population across nine non-capital-region provinces. Among national universities' medical schools, those with quotas of 50 or more students are limited to an increase rate of 30% or less compared with the 2024 academic year, while those with fewer than 50 students are allowed up to double. For private universities, the caps are 20% and 30%, respectively.
The government will expand lecture rooms and training labs and secure faculty in line with the increase, and is building clinical education training centers at 10 national university hospitals. In the residency training program, consecutive work hours were reduced from 36 to 24, and a pilot program to set weekly training hour caps will begin in March.
As short-term measures, the ministry plans to promote a contract-type regional essential physician system, expand the use of senior physicians, and increase the allocation of residents to national university hospitals.
Minister Jung Eun-kyeong of the Ministry of Health and Welfare said, "Increasing the physician workforce is an unavoidable choice," and Vice Minister Choi Eun-ok of the Ministry of Education said, "We will focus on expanding educational conditions at each university."