School staff members post notices related to the admissions application process for the 2025 academic year at Konkuk University in Seoul, Monday. Many universities across the country began the process, including those for medical schools, thereby making the government's plan to increase medical school quotas for the 2025 school year irreversible despite the demands of doctors to nullify the decision amid their months-long protest. Yonhap

Universities nationwide began collecting admissions applications for 2025 on Monday, including 39 medical schools, despite ongoing protests and walkouts by doctors calling for the withdrawal of the increase in medical school admissions.

Through the application process running from Monday to Friday, the country's four-year universities plan to admit 271,481 freshmen for the 2025 academic year, accounting for nearly 80 percent of the total admissions, which also include those admitted through the annual state college admissions exam.

Among them are 39 medical departments, which are scheduled to admit 3,118 freshmen out of their total 4,610 admissions quotas for 2025. This follows a hike in the total medical quota by nearly 1,500 from the 2024 admissions of 3,113 as part of the government's medical reform.

In late March, the government sharply increased admissions seats at medical schools outside the capital area in an initiative to address medical service shortages in rural areas and essential medical fields, marking the first such hike in 27 years.

The 2025 admissions process kicked off as surgeries and emergency room operations at major general university hospitals remain sharply disrupted due to the monthslong walkout by medical professors and trainee doctors protesting the quota hike.

To address the situation, rival parties have proposed establishing a consultative body that includes representatives from both parties, the government and the medical sector for negotiations.

However, the medical community remains adamant that the medical school quota hikes for the 2025 and 2026 academic years should first be scrapped, with any potential increase to be negotiated for the academic year starting in 2027.

The education ministry maintains that the medical quota hike for 2025 is irreversible, as the admissions application process has already begun. (Yonhap)