Ministry of Education: ”We don't allow leave of absence”... Yonsei University School of Medicine approves leave of absence even if student simply writes that they want to take time off = South Korea

Although the Ministry of Education has once again stressed that it is not possible for medical students to take a leave of absence, it has been revealed that Yonsei University has no procedures in place to check whether or not a leave of absence is possible.
The Ministry of Education's policy is that only leave of absence for special reasons is permitted, but at Yonsei University, which began approving leave of absence, all students were granted leave even if it was just for reasons such as "I want to take a break."
A Yonsei University School of Medicine official said in a phone interview with Herald Business on the 30th that the approval of students taking leave of absence was "a violation of the law."
"As long as the word 'alliance' wasn't on the application, we approved the leave of absence. There was no separate verification process," he said. Each university followed the Ministry of Education's policy of making its own autonomous decision.
"There was no need for a special reason (for taking a leave of absence), and some students simply wrote reasons such as 'I want to take a leave of absence' or 'personal reasons.'"
Prior to this, the Ministry of Education had instructed medical schools to "only allow medical students to take a conditional leave of absence with the assumption that they will return next year," but retracted this order the day before.
In 2019, the government simplified the confirmation process for medical students taking leave for personal reasons, allowing them to approve it autonomously. Some have warned that this measure is effectively forcing medical students across the country to take leave.
It has been pointed out that this is a justification for the government to increase the number of medical school students, as medical students are currently refusing to attend classes in protest against the government's policy to increase the number of medical school students.
Regarding this, Shim Min-cheol, the human resources policy planning officer, said at the briefing on the same day,
"What I've said hasn't changed from the past to the present," he said, emphasizing that the approval process has simply been simplified. However, at the university, the medical students are not only being asked whether or not they are taking leave of absence,
After Seoul National University's College of Medicine approved the applications for leave of absence from its medical students en masse earlier this month, Yonsei University was the second to approve the applications.
The presidents of universities that run medical schools have conveyed to the Ministry of Education that approval of the leave of absence is urgent, since the number of students on leave must be determined before next year's curriculum can be organized.