Not a single student at South Korea's four science and technology institutes, including the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), dropped out in the first semester of this year to enter medical or dental school. The pattern of quitting for medical school, which had occurred steadily every first semester, has disappeared.
Data submitted by KAIST, UNIST, GIST and DGIST to Rep. Hwang Jung-ah of the Democratic Party of Korea, a member of the National Assembly's Science, ICT, Broadcasting and Communications Committee, showed zero dropouts for that reason in the first semester, the lawmaker said on the 20th.
The four institutes track "entering medical or dental school" as a separate category of dropout reason. On a first-semester basis, such dropouts had risen each year: one in the 2023 academic year, three in 2024 and four in 2025. This year marks the first break in that upward trend.
KAIST had recorded the largest outflow. Three students left in the first semester of the 2024 academic year and three more in 2025 to enter medical or dental school. At GIST, one student quit for the same reason in the first semester of last year. This year, neither institute nor any of the other two reported a single such dropout.
The figures alone, however, do not confirm a shift in the trend. Because of the college admissions calendar, dropouts aimed at medical or dental school are mostly concentrated in the second semester. Whether the annual total has actually fallen will only become clear once second-semester figures are compiled. Even so, the absence of first-semester dropouts for the first time is seen as a meaningful change.
"Following a decline in dropouts for medical and dental school at the four institutes last academic year, having none at all in the first semester this year is a welcome change," Hwang said. "We need to build a stronger ladder for growth so that science and engineering talent can continue their studies and research and plan their futures."
"The National Assembly will also do its part to improve conditions for researchers, including alternative military service (a research-work program) for science and engineering talent and support for deep-tech startups," she added.