The proposal of building the College of Veterinary Medicine at Pusan National University (PNU) has been controversial across the nation. In 2020, Cha Jeon-In, the president of PNU, spoke out about the establishment of a Veterinary College as an election promise, organized, and undertook a related TF (Task Force) team after his inauguration. However, it failed due to the strong backlash from the ten Veterinary Colleges and some associations. Since then, it has had a way of coming to the surface due to the statement in the annual parliamentary inspection under the Education Committee’s audit. Two weeks later, on October 26th, PNU officially submitted a “Request for Establishment of Veterinary College of Pusan Regional University” to the Ministry of Education.

The request for the establishment suggested three reasons why it needed to be built. First, Veterinary colleges are established in all regions except for Busan; there are no veterinary colleges in Busan, so 10-20% of Busan's high school students who want to go to veterinary colleges need to move to other provinces. It causes the “inequality of the human resource supply.”

Second, although Busan plays a key role as Korea's second-largest metropolitan area and gateway to Korea, the number of livestock quarantine officers is 60% insufficient. According to Statistics Korea in 2018, the number of veterinarians per 100,000 population was the lowest in Busan, and in 2019, it was the second lowest after Ulsan.

In addition, PNU argued that after the pandemic, “specialized manpower in preventive measures” is needed to provide against infectious diseases that threaten human life. Veterinary medicine can train the core manpower of “One-Health,” experts in zoonosis that infects from higher animals to humans. After COVID-19, although demand for one-health has rapidly increased worldwide, the capability in Korea has been stagnant without any newly established veterinary colleges for more than 30 years since 1989, which is not appropriate to cope with the changing situation.

   However, veterinary medical associations strongly object to the establishment. The main argument is that the number of veterinarians is enough to the extent that domestic animal hospitals are already saturated. Lee Hoo-Jang (Prof. College of Veterinary Medicine, Gyeongsang National University) said, “About 550 veterinarians are trained every year in Korea, and 80% of them start their hospitals. Increasing the number of veterinarians further destroys the ecosystem of the veterinary field.”

In particular, it insists that the establishment is not a fundamental alternative to deal with the lack of livestock quarantine officers and veterinarians. Han Jae-Cheol (President, Jeonbuk Veterinary Medical Association) said, “Fundamentally, the turnover of veterinarians causes the main reason for the lack of the number of livestock veterinarians. Since the livestock veterinarians are poorly paid and not guaranteed, their number would increase if their rights were protected.”

However, PNU refuted that the main purpose of the establishment is not to train veterinarians but to produce human resources in response to new demands. The director of the PNU Office of Planning and Evaluation said, “The role of veterinarians is not limited to companion animals’ treatments. PNU will set up a customized curriculum to focus on the specialized industry related to livestock and marine biotechnology rather than the existing companion animal industry. When students recognize the need for quarantine and research through education, they can balance the currently unequal companion animal field with other fields.

Especially, Office manager Lee said, “PNU, which already has the College of Medicine,  the School of Dentistry, College of Pharmacy, and the School of Korean Medicine, can mainly conduct research in zoonosis after the establishment. Since the veterinary College consists of a 6-year course,  veterinarians will be released after 7 years at the earliest, so we need to consider the industry trends after ten years.”

Currently, PNU expects to accept new students of the Veterinary College from 2024. It has already secured 7 faculty members with veterinary certificates and related doctoral degrees among the 12 faculty members, the number which is required to establish a veterinary college and prepare land for building. Office manager Lee said, “It could be a win-win situation because existing veterinarians can participate as researchers or faculty Next year, we will also open a lecture on common infectious diseases for the first time in Korea in connection with the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency.

However, deliberation by the Ministry of Education and persuasion of public opinion against the veterinary associations must approve it. In the case of capability, it is decided through consultation with the Korean Veterinary Medical Association, so it is expected that persuading the veterinary associations that have opposed the establishment will play a key role.

   President Cha said on the KBS program "K-Literature Talks (대담한 K)" on the 8th, “It is meant to produce veterinarians, but the ultimate goal is to conduct medical biotechnology convergence research once the veterinary college is established. We hope that the Ministry of Education will objectively judge whether the newly-built veterinary college at PNU is required for the fostering of higher education.”

On November 4th, Korea Companion Animal Industry Association entered into an agreement to promote industry-academic cooperation with PNU and supported the establishment of the veterinary college at PNU.

Reporter Hong Yun-Woo

Translated by Park Yeon-Hee