South Korea medical students end 17-month class boycott

SEOUL – Thousands of South Korean medical students are set to return to classrooms after a 17-month boycott, an industry body has said, ending part of a stand-off that also saw junior doctors strike.

South Korean healthcare was plunged into chaos in early 2024 when then President Yoon Suk Yeol moved to

sharply increase medical school admissions

, citing an urgent need to boost doctor numbers to meet growing demand in a rapidly ageing society.

The initiative met fierce protest,

prompting junior doctors to walk away from hospitals

and medical students to boycott their classrooms, with medical operations cancelled and service provision disrupted nationwide.

The measure was later watered down, and the government eventually offered to scrap it in March 2025, after Yoon was impeached over his disastrous declaration of martial law.

“Students have agreed to return to school,” a spokesperson for the Korean Medical Association told AFP on July 14, adding that it was up to each medical school to decide the schedule for student returns.

The Korean Medical Students’ Association said in an earlier statement that the students had reached this decision because a continued boycott “could cause the collapse of the fundamentals of medical systems”.

Some 8,300 students are expected to return to school, but no specific timeline has been provided.

Prime Minister Kim Min-seok welcomed the decision, calling it a “big step forward” in a Facebook post on July 13, adding that President Lee Jae Myung was deliberating ways to solve the issue.

In addition to the student boycott, some 12,000 junior doctors went on strike in 2024 – with the vast majority of them still declining to return to work.

Mr Lee – who took office in June after winning snap elections following Yoon’s removal from office – had said on the campaign trail that he would seek to resolve the medical strike.

The increase in medical school admissions led to a record number of students retaking the college entrance exam in November in a bid to capitalise on reforms that made it easier to get into coveted majors. AFP