Introducing a legal mandate for basic medical education accreditation in Korea

which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. South Korea's medical education history is intertwined with its explosive economic growth. In the 1980s, the Korean government opened the medical education industry to the private sector. The desired results for the schools were twofold: (1) to meet the needs of the healthcare system with a growing economy; and (2) to generate positive economic gain in local communities. These intentions were clear in the government's instructions: In order to open a medical school, the founding body had to also build a 500-bed teaching hospital in the same region. The government, in return, would provide tax exemptions or deductions to the hospital by categorizing it as an educational facility. With the flourishing economy, many schools and hospitals were established across South Korea over the following two decades. However, the prolific growth came at a price. Preying on the students' hopes of becoming medical professionals, medical schools began enrolling students, without providing them with the basic facilities. Arguing that the construction of the teaching hospital would be completed by the time students needed clinical education (in 5–6 years); schools lured prospective students to their barely-completed medical schools. This phenomenon was particularly worrisome because medical schools in Korea sit at an intersection of nonprofit and for-profit management practices. While all Korean medical schools must be nonprofit operations by law, private schools often operate as a for-profit organization. With hefty tuition fees being generated through the new student body, the new private schools saw little reason to forego a revenue generating opportunity. In order to regulate and implement quality assurance structures, South Korea introduced accreditation for basic medical education (BME) in 1999. However, neither the government nor the society in general had any experience nor vision of what quality assurance management should entail. Before 1999, no inquiries had been made about the quality of education programs or the competencies of physicians. The medical society felt that graduates from schools with inadequate resources and poor school governance would negatively affect the profession, and ultimately the patients. With the help of other stakeholders, the