Medical professors escalate protests against hike in enrollment quota

SEOUL, Some medical school professors shaved their heads or tendered resignations on Tuesday in protest over the government's plan to increase the medical school enrollment quota, as the strike by about 9,000 trainee doctors entered its third week and the health ministry threatened to take disciplinary action against those defying a return-to-work order. As 40 medical schools nationwide applied for a combined 3,401 additional admission seats by the Monday deadline in response to the government's plan to hike the enrollment quota by 2,000 beginning next year, medical professors further stepped up their protests. About 10 professors of Kangwon National University's medical school in Chuncheon, 76 kilometers east of Seoul, held a hair-shaving ceremony Tuesday morning, expressing their opposition to the university's application for an additional enrollment quota. "Though many professors expressed their opposition to an increase in new admissions, the university made the opposite decision," said Ryu Se-min, hea d of Kangwon National University's medical school. He lamented that the university was supposed to provide a cause for the return of striking trainee doctors but went ahead with its application for an increased enrollment. Medical school professors in other regions announced their intention to resign on social media or submitted actual resignation letters. A cardiology professor at Chungbuk National University Hospital in Cheongju, 112 km south of Seoul, tendered a resignation letter in protest of the government's medical school enrollment quota hike plan. The professor wrote on social media that there is no reason to stay at the hospital if it is impossible to work with the striking trainee doctors. At Kyungpook National University Hospital in the southeastern city of Daegu, a surgery professor expressed an intention to resign on social media on Monday, criticizing the government for only making threats against trainee doctors. Source: Yonhap News Agency