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End to med student boycott in sight with announcement of return to classrooms

Published: 13 Jul. 2025, 12:52

People walk outside a medical school in Daejeon on July 8. [KIM SUNG-TAE]

Medical students who boycotted classes in protest of the government's plan to increase medical school admissions announced Saturday they will return to school amid the prolonged medical impasse.

The Korean Medical Student Association made the announcement during a press conference with the National Assembly's education and welfare committees and the Korean Medical Association.

"We will return to school, placing our trust in the National Assembly and the government, and commit ourselves toward normalizing medical education and the health care system," the group said in a joint statement, without specifying the exact date of the return.

Since February of last year, thousands of trainee doctors have walked off their jobs, and many medical students have boycotted classes in protest of the government's decision to increase medical school enrollment by 2,000 starting this year.

While the government later reversed course and decided to return the 2026 quota to the original level of approximately 3,000, many trainee doctors and medical students have not yet fully returned to hospitals and schools.

Yonhap