Universities are now allowed to scale down their medical school admissions increase by up to half of the government’s original plan for the academic year 2025.  

The government on Friday backed down from its insistence of increasing the medical school admissions quota by two-thousand next year, announcing a grace period on its plans.

Following a Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters meeting, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo told reporters that it will be up to the 32 medical schools that were awarded extra places to admit 50 to 100 percent of the allocated seats for the 2025 academic year.

Han said the government made the decision to protect medical students, normalize medical school education, and resolve the ongoing medical crisis. 

The announcement comes as the prime minister's office earlier said that it would likely accept a request by national university chiefs to allow them to lower their increased medical school admissions quotas.

An official at the top office also 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.