The government is likely to accept a request by national university chiefs to allow them to lower their medical school admissions quotas. 

The prime minister’s office said that Prime Minister Han Duck-soo will discuss the issue in a government meeting on Friday afternoon and announce the outcome in a special briefing, which is likely to happen at 3 p.m. 

Last month, the government announced how it planned to allocate the two-thousand extra places at the nation’s medical schools. However, six national universities located outside the capital region recently asked the government to allow them to reduce the allocated numbers by up to 50 percent. 

An official at the top office said that the government is open to adjusting the size of the quota increase, while stressing the need for a decision to be made as quickly as possible in light of universities’ admissions schedules for the 2025 academic year. 

If the government allows universities to adjust the quotas, the quota increase may fall below two-thousand.