Medical students who have applied for a leave of absence in protest of the government’s plans to increase the number of medical students in the nation have decided to push for the schools to accept their applications. 

The decision was made on Saturday in an extraordinary plenary meeting of the Korean Medical Student Association(KMSA).

During the session, the participants unanimously agreed that as soon as one of the 40 schools accepts the leave of absence requests, students at the remaining 39 schools will push for their requests to be approved on the same day.

Medical students agreed to take a collective leave of absence on February 20 and submitted their applications, but the schools have not accepted them.

As of Monday, about 54-hundred medical students had submitted leave of absence requests, but the actual number is thought to be much higher, as the tally excluded applications that did not follow due procedures such as meeting with professors.