Concerns are growing over whether the evaluation process for selecting candidates for the new National Medical University in Jeonnam properly verified the feasibility of the land, hospital construction, and faculty recruitment plans submitted by the two universities.
The final score that separated Sunchon National University and Mokpo National University was just 1.30 points. Notably, 1.17 points of this gap came from the 'faculty recruitment plan,' raising questions about how the existing and future plans for securing faculty were assessed, especially since Sunchon proposed city-owned land for its medical school and hospital.
According to the evaluation results, Sunchon received a score of 89.15, while Mokpo scored 87.85.
Specifically, both universities received the same score of 9.33 for their medical school establishment plans. In the area of securing educational facilities, Mokpo scored 18.57, slightly higher than Sunchon's 18.22.
For the educational hospital acquisition plan, Sunchon scored 17.80 and Mokpo 17.63, a difference of only 0.17 points. However, in the faculty recruitment plan, Sunchon scored 21.72, while Mokpo scored 20.55, resulting in a 1.17-point difference.
Given that the final score difference was 1.30 points, it can be argued that the faculty recruitment plan was decisive in the outcome. The Jeonnam Integrated Special City also noted that a significant score difference arose in the faculty recruitment plan.
Mokpo National University has raised questions about these results.
The university claims to have a plan that meets the requirement of 112 faculty members necessary for medical school accreditation, along with a pool of 160 medical personnel. In contrast, they question whether Sunchon's proposed faculty numbers reflect actual hires or future goals, and how full-time and part-time faculty were differentiated during the evaluation process.
They argue that it needs to be clarified whether high scores were awarded simply for presenting a large number of faculty in the plan, or if the actual feasibility, composition by field, timing, and funding were thoroughly verified.
The issue of land acquisition has also emerged as a key point of contention.
Sunchon proposed city-owned land for its medical school and hospital, while Mokpo announced at a press conference that it has secured approximately 50,000 pyeong of state-owned land for the same purpose.
Since national medical schools and hospitals are facilities established and operated by the state, it is essential to distinguish between a local government's plan to provide land and the actual legal rights the state has to use that land.
Similar issues have been identified in the case of Kyungpook National University, which is also pursuing the establishment of a national medical school.
According to a plan submitted to the Ministry of Education by Gyeongbuk Province on August 20, the university aims to establish a medical school on 130,362 square meters of 'available land' in the Gyeongbuk provincial government new town, with a goal of opening in the 2030 academic year and constructing an educational hospital with over 500 beds.
Gyeongbuk Province, Andong City, and Yecheon County plan to support the land and construction costs for the medical school and affiliated hospital. The plan released by Gyeongbuk Province also refers to the land as 'available land in the provincial government new town' rather than as state-owned land currently secured by Kyungpook National University.
This does not mean that building a national medical school and hospital using local government land is impossible. However, the process of securing ownership or usage rights for the land is a separate administrative procedure that must be completed to allow the national university to use it. How the relationship between national and public property will be organized and when the necessary administrative procedures will be completed are directly linked to the construction and opening schedules of the medical school and hospital.
Therefore, it is crucial to examine whether Sunchon's evaluation included a detailed review of the administrative procedures, required timeframes, and the impact on the project schedule for using city-owned land for the national medical school and hospital.
Moreover, a medical hospital cannot be built immediately just because land is available.
Securing land, developing a basic plan, design, various reviews and approvals, securing funding, contracting, construction, and installing medical equipment are all necessary steps.
Kyungpook National University has also submitted a concrete plan to the Ministry of Education, aiming for a 2030 opening with 130,362 square meters of land, 112 faculty members, and an educational hospital with over 500 beds. Ultimately, the government's final judgment will have to consider not only the numbers presented in the plan but also the actual feasibility of implementation.
This has led to renewed scrutiny of the composition of the evaluation committee for the Jeonnam National Medical University.
The eight-member committee includes two members with expertise in medical school establishment and education, three in clinical and basic medicine, two in regional, essential, and public health policy, and one in hospital operations and financial feasibility.
However, there appears to be no architectural or facility experts who can professionally assess the construction processes of medical schools and hospitals or large-scale facility projects based on the disclosed areas of expertise.
This is why Mokpo National University has raised concerns that there were no experts available to verify the construction schedule.
The evaluation timeline also requires scrutiny.
The Jeonnam Research Institute was designated as the evaluation agency on August 26 and began the process, evaluating based on documents, presentations, and Q&A sessions from both universities. The final score was calculated based on the average of six scores, excluding the highest and lowest scores from the eight committee members.
Some reports indicate that the evaluation committee conducted document and presentation reviews starting August 28 in Seoul.
Therefore, the Jeonnam Research Institute needs to disclose the timeline for finalizing the evaluation committee, the timing of each university's submission of their plans, and the actual time the committee members had for preliminary review.
Ultimately, the core of this controversy lies not in the 1.30-point result itself but in the verification process that produced that score.
How the already secured state-owned land was compared to the city-owned land that would be provided after administrative procedures, how the actual number of faculty that can be secured was distinguished from future recruitment plans, and which experts verified the feasibility of the construction schedule for the medical school and hospital are critical questions.
Given that similar plans for building medical schools and educational hospitals using local government land are being pursued in the case of Kyungpook National University, it cannot be concluded that the project is impossible solely because it involves city-owned land. However, this underscores the importance of how thoroughly the legal rights to the land, subsequent administrative procedures, and the feasibility of the construction schedule were verified.
Especially since 1.17 points of the final 1.30-point difference came from the faculty recruitment plan, the Jeonnam Research Institute must explain the objective basis for the difference it created.
The outcome of a 36-year-long aspiration for a national medical university in Jeonnam has been determined by a mere 1.30 points. To resolve the controversy surrounding the results, the focus should not be on 'who presented more plans' but rather on 'who has the actual preparations to execute those plans and how that was verified.'
* This article has been translated by AI.
Copyright ⓒ Aju Press All rights reserved.