[Column] What the South Jeolla Medical School Decision Leaves for Mokpo, Suncheon, and Korean Administration

Published 04 Sep.2026 23:45(KST)

Professor Han-Kyu Lim, National Mokpo University.

Suncheon National University (hereinafter Suncheon National University) has been selected as the candidate for the newly established national medical school. Although there are still final procedures remaining, this decision has resulted in starkly contrasting emotions for the eastern and western regions of South Jeolla Province. For the residents of the western region, who have long awaited a medical school, and for the members of Mokpo National University (hereinafter Mokpo National University), it has left a reality and sense of loss that are hard to reconcile.

However, from this point forward, we must examine the situation even more closely. If this event is viewed purely as a competition between Suncheon National University and Mokpo National University over which university will gain the medical school, we may fail to see the most important issues.

The current official and political framework surrounding the allocation of medical school seats is less about competition between two national universities and more about choosing whether to establish a national medical school and a large hospital in the eastern or western region of South Jeolla. In that case, the region that did not receive the medical school can be supplemented in other ways. Medical facilities can be expanded, and plans can be made to reduce regional disparities through fiscal investment or regional development projects. In fact, the task of addressing the healthcare gap in the western region is something that must be tackled in the future, and the President specifically requested this at the Cabinet meeting on September 1.

But here, we must make a clear distinction.

The question of how to supplement healthcare conditions and the environment in the western region, as an alternative to the medical school allocation, and the question of what identity Mokpo National University should retain are not the same.

The healthcare gap in the western region can be partially addressed through measures such as hospitals, medical personnel, and fiscal investments. However, these measures alone do not answer what status and function Mokpo National University will have as a national university in the future, nor on what foundation it should develop.

Moreover, Mokpo National University is not a university that has merely spoken about integration; it has actually implemented integration with Jeonnam Provincial College. It has undergone the difficult process of uniting the organizations, functions, and members of two distinct universities. When the government proposed university mergers as a major initiative to strengthen regional universities, Mokpo National University acted on that policy.

Now, through the administrative decision to exclude Mokpo National University from receiving medical school seats during the integration process with Suncheon National University, the university is losing the momentum for integration and its status is being undermined. While it may be premature to draw conclusions about the future, the current situation, which has become highly likely to be realized, poses a serious challenge for us.

How do we explain the paradox in which a university that rejected the initial arbitration proposal is awarded the medical school, while the university that took the lead in implementing the integration policy faces a more uncertain future? The integration of universities and the establishment of a new national medical school were promoted hand-in-hand. They served as key motivations that enabled the two national universities to consider the difficult choice of merging.

Thus, during discussions about integration, there were more options on the table than today. Decisions could be made collectively about where to locate the university headquarters, where to place the medical school, how to allocate the university hospital, and how to coordinate the functions of the two universities and the eastern and western regions. It was not a zero-sum scenario in which one university won everything and the other lost everything; rather, within the merged university, there was room to adjust roles and responsibilities.

However, with the collapse of the integration plan, this framework disappeared. The "integration" that had accompanied the discussion of a new medical school establishment was removed, and the focus shifted to simply selecting one university out of the two as the candidate for the new medical school.

This change has produced a far bigger difference than one might expect.

The region allocated the medical school will gain a national medical school, and the selected university will obtain this new core function, allowing for a more concrete development plan. Meanwhile, the region that was not chosen may receive supplemental measures such as additional healthcare facilities or financial support, but the status and long-term prospects of the university not selected cannot be resolved by these measures alone.

Therefore, we must not look at this issue through a single lens.

Four intertwined issues are at play: regional balance between eastern and western parts of South Jeolla, the respective futures of Suncheon National University and Mokpo National University, the government’s ongoing policy of integrating national universities in the provinces, and the establishment and allocation of seats for a new national medical school.

So far, the discussion has placed greater emphasis on which region will host the new medical school and how to supplement the region that does not receive it. However, there is still no sufficient answer regarding what will happen to Mokpo National University as a national university, and how the government’s university integration policy is connected to the process and outcome of this decision.

This is the very gap I want to address.

By examining this gap, it becomes clear why the decision cannot be seen as simply an issue between Suncheon and Mokpo.

Policy decisions alter the behavior of people and organizations, and the flow of limited resources. When the government recommends integration, each university must decide whether to trust the policy, how much to compromise, and when to act. What matters is not just what the government recommends, but also what results remain for the universities that believed and acted on those recommendations. The outcome fundamentally influences the choices other universities will make next.

Mokpo National University has already implemented integration once, and participated again in integration negotiations. During the process with Suncheon National University, several arbitration proposals were exchanged, but ultimately no agreement was reached. After that, the integration collapsed, and at some point, the selection of the medical school shifted to a competition between individual universities.

I am not here to judge which university made the better decision. Even if Mokpo National University had been chosen and the future of Suncheon National University was left uncertain, the question I pose would not change. What matters is not which university "won," but what lesson is learned by other universities observing this entire process.

In the face of government arbitration, will other universities judge it more advantageous to yield and proceed with integration, or to firmly maintain their own stance and wait for subsequent policy changes? Will they feel that accepting the government’s integration policy first is safer, or that waiting and watching is a better choice?

Policy trust cannot be built simply because the government says, "Please trust us." It is established by seeing what outcomes remain for the people and organizations who placed their trust in and acted upon the policy.

In the future, the government will again recommend integration to universities in other regions and communicate administrative decisions to interested parties. This experience signals to universities and citizens alike that disregarding the government’s recommendations may carry no consequences. People will remember what happened in Mokpo and Suncheon.

On that day, if a university asks this question, how should we respond?

"Is it truly the right choice for our university’s future to trust the government's integration policy and act first?"

The heavy weight of this question stems from the fact that its validity would not change even if the positions of Mokpo National University and Suncheon National University were reversed, and because the issues raised by this decision transcend the interests of a single university.

Professor Hankyu Lim, Mokpo National University