As per reports, following are the updates on the doctors’ protest in South Korea as on Thursday (11 July):

• On Wednesday (10 July), Ministry of Education announced guidelines to grant universities the flexibility needed to prevent protesting medical students from failing out due to their prolonged absence.
• Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Lee Ju-ho stated at the Government Complex Seoul that schools can individually apply different timing, criteria and standards to determine whether a medical student has failed.
• Since most medical students were unable to complete their coursework in the first semester of this year, universities can switch from a semester system to an academic year system, which consists of two semesters of 15 weeks per semester. The government will also allow a three-semester system from the current two-semester program. Suppose the number of class days cannot be fulfilled despite the new measure. In that case, it will be possible to reduce the number of class days set by the Enforcement Decree of the Higher Education Act to two weeks per academic year from more than 30 weeks in each academic year.
• Classes can also be offered at night, remotely, on weekends and even completely remotely if necessary. A temporary exemption for students who fail some subjects will be available for this year only so that they do not have to repeat the entire year due to lack of payment.
• Further, the education minister also stated that the guidelines were not created to give medical students special treatment, but as a measure to prevent the lives and health of the public from being jeopardized by a shortage of medical personnel. He also urged students to stop their collective action and return to class, pledging that the government and school would do everything in their power to make sure students can continue their education.