해방 후 한국 의학박사 학위 제도의 사회사: 1945∼1979 = The Social History of the Medical Doctoral Degree System in Korea: 1945–1979

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This study investigates the social history of the medical doctoral degree system in South Korea from 1945 to 1979, focusing on the phenomenon of the ‘overproduction’ of medical Ph.D.s. Rather than dismissing this phenomenon as a result of moral hazard or academic corruption, this paper argues that it was a product of the incomplete coexistence between the colonial legacy of the Japanese ‘Dissertation Ph.D.’ and the American ‘Coursework Ph.D.’ introduced after liberation.
A key focus of this research is the political economy of the ‘Research Student’ (Yeon-gu-saeng) system. In the 1960s, amidst a severe lack of state funding, this system functioned as a ‘paradoxical adaptation strategy’ where universities traded degrees for ‘research fees’ from practitioners to sustain basic medicine laboratories. The Ministry of Education’s subsequent abolition of the old system in the 1970s was not merely a quantitative regulation but a forced modernization project aimed at establishing academic standards. This shift also represented a transition in governance strategy from direct control to ‘soft governance,’ encouraging university autonomy through stricter procedural requirements.
Although a discourse emerged about the ‘uselessness’ of medical Ph.D.s emerged with the settlement of the medical specialist (residency) system, the deep-seated preference for the M.D.-Ph.D. title persisted. This study concludes that the controversies of this period established a unique path dependency in Korean medical education, where academic degrees served as essential symbolic capital in the medical market, a legacy that continues to influence the Korean medical landscape today.