Nine national universities in non-capital areas that have increased their medical school admissions quota for next year have reportedly notified the government that they will need more than two-thousand additional medical professors over the next six years to accommodate the expanded quota.

According to data submitted by these national universities outside the capital region to Rep. Jin Sun-mee of the main opposition Democratic Party on Wednesday, the nine universities said that they need two-thousand-363 additional medical professors from 2025 to 2030.

In March, the education ministry requested 32 medical schools with the increased quotas to present data to identify areas for improvement in educational conditions in line with the expansion.

Given the data submitted to the DP lawmaker was limited to nine universities, the number of additional medical professors requested across all 32 schools is likely to be much higher than two thousand. 

Rep. Jin expressed concerns about a possible shortage of medical professors, noting that while the education ministry pledged to increase the number of full-time faculty at national university medical schools by a thousand over the next three years, this number falls significantly short of the universities' needs.