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2 years ago, a med school quota hike incited a doctor walkout. Why does a new proposal to raise hit different?

Published: 26 Feb. 2026, 07:00 Updated: 26 Feb. 2026, 07:03

LEE SOO-JUNG
[email protected]

Medical professionals walk inside a general hospital in downtown Seoul on Sept. 30, 2025, a day when junior doctors returned to their posts after mass resignations and a strike. [YONHAP]

[NEWS ANALYSIS]

While the havoc wreaked from a prolonged doctor walkout in response to a medical school admissions quota hike is still fresh in the minds of the public, Korea is once again pushing to increase the cap.

This time around, however, the medical community is relatively muted.

In early 2024, when then-President Yoon Suk Yeol announced plans to add 2,000 seats in medical schools per year, junior doctors nationwide resigned en masse in February that year. It escalated into the longest standoff between doctors and the government in Korean history. The conflict was gradually resolved after the Ministry of Education backtracked on the quota hike for the 2026 academic year after Yoon’s ouster in April of last year.

Incumbent President Lee Jae Myung has likewise presented the medical quota hike as a flagship policy. He vowed to reform the medical sector to tackle the physician shortage in provincial regions and in less lucrative but essential medical disciplines. On Feb. 10, the Lee administration unveiled a plan to add 3,342 admission seats for the next five years.

While Yoon and Lee seemingly agree on the overarching principle of adding new seats across 32 medical schools in provincial regions, Lee’s scheme is smaller in scale.

Despite still objecting to the quota increase, the Korean medical community appears to be more patient in formulating a more constructive response to avoid the chaos and public blame that ensued after the protest two years ago.

Difference in approach

Counselling booths for admissions at medical schools and oriental medicine schools are crowded by parents and aspiring college students at a college entrance expo held in southern Seoul in July 2025. [NEWS1]

In contrast to Yoon’s scheme, which mainly centered on a simple increase in the supply of physicians and doctors, Lee introduced an additional concept of “locally contracted doctors.”

Yoon did not attach conditions for aspiring doctors admitted through the expanded quota. He calculated that the country would produce 10,000 more doctors after a five-year hike.

President Lee, who observed the 2024 standoff as the chief of the opposition party, proposed a phased quota expansion plan to add 3,342 seats over five years.

Medical schools admissions quota hike [YUN YOUNG]

The 2027 academic year will see 490 additional students on the baseline of the current 3,058 seats. The 2028 and 2029 academic years will welcome 613 more pupils than the current allotment. Starting in 2030, a new public medical school and a new medical school in a region without one will open, each admitting 100 aspiring doctors. The government is targeting 3,871 seats for the 2030 and 2031 academic years, an addition of 813 from the current cap.

Under Lee’s scheme, the expanded slots will be reserved for a special admissions track available only to students who graduated from high schools in the region in question. A total of 3,342 doctors will be bound to serve in public health institutions in the region for 10 years as locally contracted doctors.

Specific seat allocations for 32 medical schools are scheduled to be finalized in April, following rounds of review and adjustments by the Education Ministry.

Restrained reactions

A panel of junior doctors from Korea Intern Resident Association particpate in a dialogue with officials from the Ministry of Health and Welfare at the Catholic University of Korea in southern Seoul on Dec. 27, 2025. [NEWS1]

Compared to two years ago, when the doctor community united and protested collectively and promptly, signs of a unified response were not notable this time.

Doctors appear to be deliberating on how to respond effectively, rather than hastily launching a strike against the government.

On Feb. 6, 2024, then-Health Minister Cho Kyoo-hong announced a 2,000-seat hike. Exactly two weeks later, nearly 10,000 junior doctors nationwide halted training and medical duties and walked out.

President Lee’s medical recruitment quota hike was announced on Feb. 10. Yet, resignations or strikes have not been reported as of Wednesday.

However, the current apparent tranquility does not mean that doctors have acquiesced to the government’s decision, with the underlying sentiment opposing the quota hike largely unchanged since 2024.

The largest doctors’ group in the country, the Korean Medical Association (KMA), which represents community and general doctors and senior doctors in specialties, also criticized the recent quota hike for lacking a “reasonable rationale” in a statement issued on Feb. 10.

Kim Seong-geun, spokesperson of the KMA, told the Korea JoongAng Daily on Wednesday that there has been no discussion about collective action for the time being.

"Individual judgment should come before launching a collective action, and there was an anticipation that their responses would lead to [policy] changes," Kim said. "This time, it seems that doctors do not have such thoughts."

A group representing interns — first-year medical trainees pursuing a special license in a specific discipline — and residents — those in their second to fourth year — also spoke out against the hike.

In a statement, the Korean Intern Resident Association (KIRA) expressed “deep regret” over the government’s quota hike, adding that the decision “trampled on the last hopes of young doctors.”

Where are things heading

Members of the Korean Medical Association demand that the government prepare a reasonable policy for medical school admissions at the association's headquarters in Yongsan District, central Seoul, on Jan. 31. [NEWS1]

While doctors — regardless of seniority — by and large oppose the quota hike, some signs of internal strife have seemingly emerged.

KMA chief Kim Taek-woo is expected to be subject to a vote of no-confidence as he failed to prevent the hike. He was part of an expert panel that participated in a series of discussions to decide the number of seats to add.

In addition, leaders at KIRA reportedly announced that they are willing to go their separate ways apart from the KMA, citing Kim's failure to prevent the increase.

Yet, the KMA spokesperson suggested that the organization will continue to represent doctors nationwide, including junior doctors.

Junior doctors played a pivotal role in the earlier resistance to the government by defying "return-to-work" orders and resigning from their posts. They left training institutions — mostly tertiary hospitals — in February 2024 and mostly returned in September last year, an absence of one year and seven months.

"Currently, we don't know whether the KIRA statement was agreed on by a small number of people or all junior doctors," Kim said. "While we will observe KIRA's stance, we will communicate with the government on medical policies, which were not finalized yet, such as the management of locally contracted doctors and the establishment of new medical schools."

It appears that the medical community is playing it safe by taking time to contemplate how to constructively voice their stance within a negotiable range and to avoid an antagonistic relationship with the government.

"The current stage appears to be a time for keeping an eye on how the situation develops," Kim said.

BY LEE SOO-JUNG [[email protected]]