The Gwangju-South Jeolla Special Autonomous City faces a deepening dilemma after Mokpo National University and Suncheon National University failed to reach a merger agreement just one day before the deadline to apply for a new national medical school.
If the merger falls through, the special city plans to ask the Ministry of Education and other authorities, after the application deadline passes, to allow a change in how the medical school would be established. Such a move risks a backlash from both Mokpo and Suncheon.
The Ministry of Education had asked institutions to submit a "regional medical school establishment plan" by Thursday.
The plan must include the rationale for establishing a new medical school in the region, the proposed enrollment quota, an implementation framework, and plans for securing educational facilities, a teaching hospital and faculty.
The ministry instructed that the submission be premised on a merger of the two universities, with the parties agreeing on details such as the location of the medical school and university hospital before filing the plan. Local government matters, including support plans, could be included as a separate section.
The two universities failed to agree on where the medical school would be located and submitted separate establishment plans to the special city on Tuesday.
Mokpo National University, acknowledging that no agreement had been reached on the medical school's location, drafted its plan around three items — the need for a new school, the proposed enrollment size and the local government's support plan — while Suncheon National University explicitly designated Suncheon as the site for both the medical school and the university hospital.
The special city expressed regret and rejected Suncheon National University's plan that day.
Suncheon National University then resubmitted a revised plan covering only the three items the special city had requested.
In a press release, Suncheon National University said news reports emerged about 20 minutes after it submitted its plan on Tuesday indicating the document would be rejected, while the special city's official rejection notice and request for resubmission did not arrive at the university until Wednesday. "We question whether the plan was even reviewed, and how its contents became known publicly before the university was officially notified," the university said.
The episode drew criticism that infighting between the universities, compounded by a separate dispute between the special city and the universities, had deepened internal discord and distracted from the core issue.
Gwangju-South Jeolla Special Autonomous City Mayor Min Hyeong-bae said the city would submit an application regardless. "We still have to apply. Of the nine documents required by the Ministry of Education, three are ones the special city itself must prepare," he said. "We cannot give up on the medical school just because the merger did not happen. We will submit something in some form."
He added that the city could not declare which university it would apply with before the merger question was settled. "After the Thursday deadline passes, we will hear the Ministry of Education's position and respond accordingly," he said.
sij@heraldcorp.com
