The maximum increase in medical school entrance quota requested to the government by universities is estimated to have reached four-thousand, with the higher-than-expected level of demand set to accelerate the administration's push for quota expansion.

According to Yonhap News Agency on Monday, 40 universities in the country that have medical schools are assumed to have suggested the maximum entrance quota for the 2030 academic year in the upper three-thousands.

While the current total nationwide quota stands at three-thousand-58, the universities have likely proposed to more than double it to a maximum of seven-thousand by 2030.

Smaller-sized medical schools with a quota of 50 or less, such as University of Ulsan and Gachon University, and state universities, including Chungbuk National University, are presumed to have requested doubling or tripling their quota.

The government is expected to evaluate the universities' educational capacity, analyze overseas cases, and collect opinions from the medical community and consumer groups before finalizing the scope of the quota increase. The size of expansion, however, is not expected to significantly exceed one-thousand. 

The health ministry has declined to confirm the figures prior to the government's official announcement of its two-week survey through last Thursday.