As some medical students at key universities apply to return after a yearlong period of leave, universities are closely watching whether the trend will spread while firmly maintaining their stance on penalizing those who don't return.

Since 2024, students at medical schools nationwide applied for leave of absence in protest against the government's plan to expand the medical school enrollment quota. The government agreed to roll back the quota to 3,058, the same as the figure for the 2024 academic year, on the condition that students on leave return to school by end of March. Strict measures will be in place for students that don't return, such as universities not approving collective leaves of absence and having students either prohibited from moving onto the next academic year or being expelled.


As of March 21, the deadline for Yonsei University and Korea University medical schools' return-to-school application, over half of their students applied to return this spring semester.

Universities usually accept applications to return to school before the semester starts, or until end of February. However, medical schools have been extending the application period in hopes students will return. Yonsei University's application period to return from a leave of absence was originally between Jan. 13 to Feb. 24, but was opened again between March 7 and 21 for medical school students.

In the announcement to extend the return to school application period, Yonsei University wrote that it will notify those subject to expulsion on Monday.

CHA University also told the JoongAng Ilbo, an affiliate of the Korea JoongAng Daily, that it saw a “significant number of students applying to return.”

“The fact that students in the Seoul area, who pushed to take leaves of absence despite the enrollment quota increase not having been applied yet, have changed their stance is quite encouraging,” said a president of a university in the Honam area, which refers to the Gwangju and Jeolla provinces. “There's actually a small number of students that are strongly pushing for a collective leave-of-absence, and once the momentum shifts, we expect most students to return to class.”

Although some are planning to return, there are students who wish to continue their leave of absence stating poor working conditions for doctors and problems within the health care system.

The return-to-school application deadline for Konyang University and Inje University's medical schools is Monday, with Seoul National University, Ewha Womans University, Pusan National University and Dongguk University's falling on Thursday.

More medical schools such as Kyung Hee University, Kyungsang National University, Inha University, Chonnam National University, Chosun University, Chungnam National University, Kangwon National University and The Catholic University of Korea's all fall on Friday. Soonchunhyang University's deadline comes last, on April 3.

“Students that signed up to return to school are clearly aware that they need to attend classes if they want the enrollment quota to be rolled back,” said a medical school professor at a university in Seoul.”

Some say that students may sign up to return, although not physically attend classes.

“We can't determine whether classes will proceed normally just based on students applying to return to school,” said a vice president of a university in greater Seoul. “There can be students that are applying to return just to avoid being expelled, and those students can refuse to attend classes.”

For many medical schools, students that register for the semester but don't attend classes won't be able to progress to the next academic year as they have poor attendance.

“Rather than prohibiting students from moving on to the next academic year, which is set at the end of the semester, immediately expelling those that don't apply to return to school would be a way to change the students' minds,” said professor at a university in greater Seoul.

Protecting students that do return to school is another area that universities need to focus on.

Some universities are considering holding online classes for students that return or installing desk dividers for privacy.

“Some of our students returned to classes last month and were criticized for that, which led to some of them withdrawing their application to return,” said an official for Seoul National University. “For things like this to not happen again, we need to properly protect our students.”

BY CHOI MIN-JI, LEE BO-RAM, LEE TAE-HEE [lee.taehee2@joongang.co.kr]