Universities to review measures to exempt boycotting med students from failing semester

SEOUL, Universities across South Korea will review measures to exempt medical students participating in an ongoing collective class boycott from failing the semester due to insufficient class hours, the education ministry said Tuesday.Since the beginning of the current semester, many medical students nationwide have been boycotting classes in protest of the government's plan to hike the medical school quota, raising concerns that students might be held back en masse due to excessive class absences.In a recent survey conducted by the education ministry, some medical schools have proposed postponing the annual doctor license test for senior students, typically scheduled for September, along with the test application period, which normally takes place between July and August.In the survey, universities also submitted plans to the ministry to allow greater flexibility in academic requirements for medical students and adopt a special rule exempting students from having to repeat a semester after failing it due to insufficient class attendance.Under the plans, universities will seek to increase the availability of online classes for medical students during the current semester so that boycotting students can meet their class hour requirements without having to attend in-person classes.Also among the planned measures is temporarily withholding the standard for failing a semester during the current first academic term, allowing students who have not met their academic requirements to fulfill them in the next semester.Some universities also plan to consider integrating the two semesters per year into a single term to permit students to meet academic requirements within a longer one-year period.Source: Yonhap News Agency