Over 12-thousand-600 medical students in the country have applied for a leave of absence, in apparent protest of the government's planned increase of the medical school admissions quota.

According to the education ministry, 847 additional students at 14 medical schools submitted applications between last Friday and Sunday, bringing the cumulative total to 12-thousand-674, or more than 67 percent of medical students nationwide. A total of 410, however, have since withdrawn their applications.

Of the applications, 47 were approved for mandatory military duty, health and other personal reasons.

Classes had been suspended at eleven schools as of last Friday, with efforts toward normalization underway through talks with the students.

Many of the schools have postponed the start of the spring term from February to March, as students who miss over a quarter to over a third of classes are likely to fail at most medical schools.