Last week, Seoul National University decided to approve its medical students' gap years, almost a year after the students started refusing to attend classes in protest of the government's medical reform initiatives.

SNU became to first university to do so, despite the government's pressure not to. In what appears to be retaliatory measures, the Ministry of Education launched an audit on SNU. The chairperson of the Emergency Committee of SNU Medical Center Professors, Professor Kang Hee-kyung, said it was only right that the school approve the student's gap years. In an interview with campus newspaper, SNU News, professor Kang said "If we do not approve the students' gap years, we have to hold all of them back a year. And that cannot happen."

Eventually, the ministry back down, announcing on 6 Oct. that it would allow students to take a gap year, given that they return for the 2025 spring semester. However, it was a different announcement by the ministry that sparked massive debates. In order to preemptively combat future medical staff shortages that is expected to result from the students' walkout, the ministry said it would mull reducing the medical school curriculum from six years to five.

This proposal sparked criticisms from both the opposition party and the medical community. Suspicions arose that the ministry did not thoroughly consider the impact of such a decision. The medical community argued that five years was not enough time to learn everything one needs to actively save lives, while both colleges and the Ministry of Health said it was not consulted when the Education Ministry drafted the proposal.

Facing harsh backlash, the ministry took a step back on Monday, saying that the proposal did not mean all colleges had to adopt the five-year curriculum. Rather, it meant the government would fully support colleges that wished to do so, according to the Ministry. Criticisms continued that the ministry was hasty in announcing the proposal, and that it was changing its words. Ultimately the ministry retracted its proposal on Tuesday.

But debates concerning the measures did not stop there. Doubts were cast as to whether the Yoon administration was capable of making thorough and thoughtful policy decisions. Suspicions were raised as to whether inter-ministerial communications and inter-cabinet coordination were functional.

However, this is not the first time that different ministries in the Yoon administration failed to unify their voice. Labor reform and gender equality initiatives were all tarnished by communication issues. The Yoon administration has one of the highest rates of policy initiatives that were scrapped before fruition.

Meanwhile, the side effects of the medical students' walkout still linger as questions that need to be answered by the government. As med students return next year, how are universities going to cope with the sudden influx of students and still provide them with quality education? How will the administration address medical staff shortages that arise from a smaller graduating class? Many of the med students that took a gap year enlisted in the military. How will the government deal with shortages of medical officers in the military a couple of years down the line?

More importantly, can the governmen better coordinate and communicate its policies? Can it escape its exclusive attitude and communicate with local universities and the medical community in order to overcome the situation? Only questions remain.

The author is a former Editor-in-Chief and the current Chief Editorial Writer at The SNU Quill. –Ed.