Seoul, March 22 A consultative body of medical school deans in South Korea on Saturday said that they have rejected additional requests for leave, reaffirming they will no longer accept such requests by students who have left en masse to protest against the government's plan to hike school quotas.
"A total of 35 out of 40 schools have completed rejecting requests for leave of absence," the Korean Association of Medical Colleges and Graduate School of Medicine (KAMC), an association of the deans of 40 medical schools, Yonhap news agency reported.
The KAMC said the remaining five schools will also make a similar decision next week, stressing that requests for leave of absence, with the exception of those for military, medical and family-related issues, will not be granted.
The announcement came a day after five medical schools closed their reinstatement deadlines for students to express their intent to return to class in the new school year.
About half of the medical school students at Yonsei University were estimated to have expressed their will to return to class, raising speculations on whether the move will spread to other medical schools.
Earlier this month, the government said it will scrap the contested plan to increase medical school admissions next year to resolve the ongoing health care crisis, on the condition that all medical students on leave return to classrooms by the end of March.
Under the conditional decision, the medical school enrollment quota for next year has been set at 3,058, reversing the government's plan to increase admissions by 2,000 each year for five years to address a chronic shortage of doctors.
The decision to scrap the disputed plan came amid mounting concerns that disruptions in the country's health system and medical education may become irreparable should the prolonged walkout by junior doctors and students continue.
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