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High school seniors applying for medical college will face fierce competition this year since Korea¡¯s leading universities are halving their undergraduate intake for medicine starting from the 2007 college entrance exam as part of plans to turn their medical faculties into U.S.-style graduate schools.
They are Seoul National, Yonsei, Korea, SungKyunKwan, Hanyang, Chung-Ang, Catholic, Chonnam and Yeungnam universities. Four others -- Chungnam, Chosun, Dong-A and Inha universities -- will stop admitting undergraduate medical students altogether. Halving undergraduate intake is the first step to converting to full graduate schools, a pet plan by the Education Ministry that has met with some resistance from universities.
The ministry said Monday it will accept applications from universities that want make the conversion until Feb. 3, before the application deadline for the second stage of the Brain Korea 21 academic support project. It said Korea, Catholic, Dong-A and Inha universities already decided to make the switch, and SNU, Yonsei, SungKyunKwan and Hanyang - which have so far held out -- are expected to follow suit. The ministry says refusenik universities will not be eligible for Brain Korea support, which would mean a considerable loss of funding.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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