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Korea's medical licensing exam sees applicants return as doctor standoff thaws

Published: 29 Jul. 2025, 10:47 Updated: 29 Jul. 2025, 17:21

A poster advertising a 100 percent acceptance rate for the national medical licensing exam is seen on a wall inside a medical school campus in Daejeon on July 22. [KIM SUNG-TAE]

The number of applicants this year for the national medical licensing exam has recovered to about half the usual level, data showed Tuesday.

A total of 1,450 candidates registered for the 90th national medical licensing exam's practical assessment, which closed last Friday, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Korea Health Personnel Licensing Examination Institute on Tuesday.

To obtain a medical license, candidates must pass both the practical exam, held from September to November, and the written exam, held in January of the following year. Eligible candidates include medical school graduates and those scheduled to graduate within six months.

Typically, about 3,200 candidates apply for the exam, including 3,000 fourth-year medical students, as well as repeat exam takers and graduates of foreign medical schools who have passed a preliminary exam. This year's figure represents approximately 45 percent of the average.

Only 382 students applied for the 89th exam last year, after many medical students left hospitals in protest of the government's plan to increase the quota for medical school admissions. Just 269 passed both the practical and written portions — 8.8 percent of the previous year’s 3,045 successful examinees — resulting in fewer than one-tenth of the usual number of new doctors.

The increase in applications this year is likely due to the return of many medical students earlier this year. Separately, the government plans to offer an additional round of the national licensing exam next year.

On Friday, the Ministry of Education announced it would allow approximately 8,000 medical students who had been held back due to their class boycott to return to school, and that it would administer additional exams for third- and fourth-year students graduating in August 2025 and 2026.

BY SHIN HYE-YEON [[email protected]]