A group of medical students filed a complaint against Vice Minister Oh Seok-hwan and others at the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials. The Ministry of Education pressured universities to reject students’ leave of absence requests and to expel or fail students who did not participate in classes.
Lee Sun-woo, chairperson of the association representing medical students, the Korean Association of Medical Colleges and Medical Graduate Schools (KAMC), noted on the 9th that a complaint was submitted to CIO.
During a related press conference that morning, the chairperson claimed, "The leave of absence request submitted by medical students in February is legal based on academic rules that must be uniformly applied like other departments." He added, "However, the requests were rejected because the government had to approve at least one leave request from medical students."
He said, "Especially, all classmates preparing for military enlistment submitted a standard leave of absence request, which is required before transferring to military leave, but all were rejected," and added, "In this process, to avoid any disadvantage to the school, they even confiscated students' mobile phones without a warrant.
He also raised concerns regarding the Ministry of Education and each medical school’s decision to fail and expel students who had not returned by the 7th, stating, "If the previously submitted leave of absence requests had been approved, there would have been no expulsion or failure. The Ministry of Education rejected these requests this year on the grounds that they needed to educate medical students, and now they are failing and expelling non-returning students."
The chairperson argued, "The Ministry of Education applied pressure and threats to the universities’ presidents and deans, stating, ‘If you do not expel the students who did not participate in class, government support will be terminated,’" emphasizing that this is a clear coercion and abuse of authority, seriously infringing on the autonomy of universities and students' basic rights.
The chairperson said, "I have confirmed through various channels that there was actual pressure and threats from the Ministry of Education related to students' academic status," and noted, "We submitted the complaint to clarify whether Vice Minister Oh and Kim Hong-soon, the Medical Education Support Officer of the Ministry of Education, mentioned directly are key parties or colluding in this matter."
In the current list of defendants, Acting Prime Minister and Minister of Education Lee Joo-ho was omitted. Regarding this, the chairperson stated, "We only included those we heard from directly," adding, "If it is confirmed during the investigation that he issued improper instructions, I believe CIO will naturally conduct an investigation regarding this acting minister."