A pedestrian walks past Seoul National University Hospital in Seoul, July 14, 2025. Korea Times photo by Nam Dong-gyun
Medical schools failed to hire enough teaching faculty following a large increase in admission quotas for 2025, the state audit agency said Tuesday.
The Board of Audit and Inspection announced the results of an audit into what measures medical schools took to ensure quality education after their aggregate admission quotas rose by about 1,500 to 4,567 for the 2025 school year under a decision by the then government of ousted former President Yoon Suk Yeol.
Of the 30 medical schools given larger quotas, 18 fell short of meeting their hiring plans as of February last year, with Soon Chun Hyang University in the central city of Cheonan topping the list with a shortage of 92 teachers.
Only 59 percent of newly added teaching positions were filled at 30 medical schools between March 2024 and February 2025, and the situation was worse at schools outside of the Seoul metropolitan area due in part to lower wages and poorer living conditions in provincial areas.
The audit agency said government budgets were also allocated to medical schools solely based on increased quotas without taking the specific situation of each school into consideration.
Following the quota increase, the average number of students assigned per cadaver rose from 7.79 to 8.12, and three medical schools were projected to face a shortage of cadavers after their current holdings are depleted by 2030.
Source: Korea Times News
