Selected Speeches
Dr. Chungserved as the President of SNU from 2002 to 2006. These are selected speeches during his presidency.
The Role and Vision of the University in Korean Society: Perspectives from Seoul National University, Oxford Round Tabel (July 7, 2003)
HIT: 7673
The Role and Vision of the University in Korean Society: Perspectives from Seoul National University
Professor Un-Chan CHUNG
President, Seoul National University
Society and the University: A Symbiotic Relationship
As President of Seoul National University, my mission is to ensure that the quality of education we provide fulfills our mandate to give students an exceptional academic preparation that will empower them to meet the challenges of today’s society.
The following quote from a colleague at Seoul National conveys the importance of academic institutions, “Education is a precious medal of enlightenment that one earns and wears throughout life; no one can take it away, it is an eternal torch to be passed on to those wishing to achieve a balance between the heart and mind.” I believe these words eloquently capture the purpose of our existence and the immense responsibility that we have in shaping the productive future of our society.
Ultimately, our academic institutions are responsible for producing the nation’s intellectual capital, thereby, instilling the proper methodology for good governance, economic stability, and social welfare. The continuance of this dynamic relationship must not be interrupted. It must remain innovative and open to change to meet the ongoing challenges of our society at large. The danger of the university structure neglecting the importance of its role in society, I believe, is the most credible threat to the future of Korean society.
A symbiotic relationship exists between society and its universities, both of which need each other to sustain a productive human environment. Accordingly, universities should provide the most effective methods to develop creative and critical thinking skills. From this educational foundation, students may effectively absorb knowledge, a sense of responsibility, and awareness. As President of Seoul National University, the daunting responsibility of our nation’s universities to shape Korean society has caused me to reflect on Seoul National’s goals in hopes of producing an even more successful future for our nation.
In the case of Korea, the past forty years of remarkable economic development has been attributed to the effective dissemination of advanced science and technology. In the early phases of economic development, the knowledge that Korea possessed was much less than that of developed countries. Thus, the Korean university’s role at that time was to pass on knowledge gained from universities overseas. The government’s role was to increase the number of educated Koreans. The graduates of our universities used this knowledge to develop the nation at a rapid speed. As a result of this knowledge transfer and an increase in the educated population, Korea was able to grow by 8% annually for the past forty years despite deficient levels of capital and resources.
However, in recent years Korean universities have reached a point of diminishing returns in the transfer and sharing of knowledge from developed nations. As efficient as Korean universities were in sharing knowledge, it has become more evident that our universities lack the ability to create new knowledge. Unfortunately, the current education system relies too much on sharing existing information instead of instilling the creativity, critical thinking, and ingenuity to create new ideas and technology. This issue becomes increasingly relevant since the road to economic prosperity depends on overcoming ongoing technological challenges by way of initiative, innovation and flexibility. The critical juncture we are facing has provided the impetus for me to offer my thoughts on the proper “vision” of the university in hopes of shaping a productive future for Korea.
General Problems in Korean Universities
In the 1980s, Korean universities were at their peak of excellence, but now the state of our universities is in slow decline. Though many universities have been built since the 1980s, they lack in academic quality. The government’s past efforts to increase educational facilities to answer the growing number of students left out the most important factor in creating a university: the quality of education. Thus, Korean universities, while seemingly grand in structure stand far from reaching standards of academic excellence.
During the 1997-98 financial crisis, the IMF financial assistance package provided to Korea also required the real and financial sectors to initiate structural reforms. Consequently, higher levels of transparency have been achieved for both real and financial sectors. The achievement of transparency helped rejuvenate a competitive business environment, reinforcing the Darwin’s “survival of the fittest” theory. However, during this period of intense reform in the Korean economy, there were no such calls for structural reforms for Korea’s universities until now. This lapsed time has made the task of educational reform more burdensome, expensive, and complicated as opportunities for reform were lost and complacency among academia may have set in. As “survival of the fittest” applies to the business environment, it should apply to the academic environment as well. The requirement for structural reforms of Korea’s academic institutions should take place to ensure that only the most capable universities remain responsible for educating the nation. In this manner, capable universities equal a capable nation.
How do we explain the slow decline in the quality of our universities
First, universities have historically suffered from a ”copy-cat” mentality along with other infrastructures in our education system. It seems that all universities in Korea believe that in order to avoid any loss of opportunity, they should adopt or copy what other universities have in order to remain competitive regardless of whether or not it improves the quality of education in their institutions.
Here are three past examples of the “copy-cat” mentality that occurred in the Korean education system:
(1) One of our universities expanded its engineering department when the government advocated recruiting more engineering students as part of the nation’s policy to increase the number of highly educated workers. As a result, other universities expanded their engineering departments.
(2) A university located in a certain region was enlarged with the intention of reinforcing the economy of that particular region; other regions adopted the same exact strategy, whether or not it was deemed as necessary.
(3) A university concentrated on graduate schools as its core and before long, other universities also began to focus on and increase the number of their graduate schools. This resulted in the significant increase in the graduate student population.
Secondly, universities have also relied on economies of scale (the larger an enterprise, the less cost required to produce a unit). Accordingly, universities have been attached to the idea that “the larger the student population, the less cost needed per student.” The number of graduate students is two to four times greater than the amount two decades ago. As a result, educational services have been stretched too thin and are unable to provide a competitive level of excellence on an extensive scale. The number of Korean students enrolled in the nation’s universities is 4.07% of the entire population, making Korea’s university student population, near the largest in the world. The amount of students enrolled at Seoul National University represents 0.06% of the whole population (38,000 enrolled). This immense student population is not common among world-famous universities. According to these statistical conditions and percentages, Seoul National University’s student population is 10 times higher than that of Harvard University, 7 times higher than the University of California at Berkley, and 3 times higher than the University of Tokyo. The total number of university students enrolled at Seoul National, Yonsei, and Korea University is equal to 0.18% of the Korean population whereas the total number of students at Harvard, MIT, and U.C. Berkley represents only 0.02% of the U.S. population.
Lastly, each year almost 120,000 students enroll in Korea’s top three universities: Seoul National University, Korea University, and Yonsei University the so-called SKY universities. The total population of Korea is 47 million people. This means that SKY university graduates will undertake most key leadership roles in Korea; this is further reinforced by the fact that a close kinship of alma maters exists in our society. Ultimately, the monopoly of influential power created by the SKY network is viewed by the public as “elitist” and non-representative of the population as a whole. Additionally, the creation of such an imbalance of power and influence in Korean society deters Korea from realizing the full extent of diversity and social integration. In order to prevent the declining quality of Korean universities, which hinders its ability to shape a productive society, our universities should strive to achieve four goals: (1) diversification and social integration of the nation through the creation of effective educational programs, (2) recruitment of qualified academic and administrative talent, (3) proper adjustment of the nation’s education policy to serve the long-term needs of society, and (4) reduction of large and unnecessary educational facilities in order to concentrate more resources on sustaining academic excellence.
A Critical Light on Seoul National University
Seoul National University stands as Korea’s premier academic institution. However, we are also at a critical juncture in our history and are challenged with attaining first-class standards. After the 1990s, Korean society and global market forces have made universities realize that the effective transfer of present knowledge falls short in attaining first-class academic excellence and a productive labor force. In recent years, growing criticism from Korean society has emerged, blaming universities for not actively pursuing ways to create an academic environment that is capable of creating “new” knowledge. The contemporary world is able to produce massive amounts of new knowledge by means of systemizing structures for gathering information. Thus, the information society is always evolving and changing to the point where today’s new knowledge lifespan is limited to months and years. It is these incredible dimensions of change and technological innovation that call for our universities to be innovative, effective, flexible, and over-arching in its vision.
Unfortunately, almost all universities in Korea (including Seoul National) are not flexible or innovative enough to meet the demands of today’s information society. This means that our universities are neither properly structured nor equipped with the necessary elements to begin effectively teaching “knowledge creation.” Since knowledge creation was never actively pursued in the history of Korea’s universities, there exists no foundation for its initiation. Thus, our society lacks the imaginative human resource and innovative policy mechanisms to transform our educational structures from a strategy of “quantitative expansion through imitation” to “qualitative growth through creation”. The most damaging effect of this new knowledge deficiency is exemplified by Korea’s 1997 financial crisis, which forced the nation to accept financial relief from the International Monetary Fund. From this economic crisis, Korean society has learned an important lesson about the consequences of not being able to teach our society’s labor force to deal with change.
In the case of Seoul National University students, I find that most students are very efficient in memorizing and “filling in the blanks” on exams. For the most part, they are taught to listen and apply what they have learned. Unfortunately, this only accounts for part of the learning experience. When our students are asked to write thesis papers, most find it very difficult to apply what they’ve learned in an original way. Moreover, a lot of students find it difficult to solve problems in a new situation. The inability for our teachers and students to “think out of the box” seems to be the most credible threat to the productivity of Korean society.
With respect to research, Seoul National University has heavily stressed its importance over the past 10 years. This concentration on research was supplemented by the government’s BK21 program. As a result, in the field of natural sciences Seoul National assumed 34th place in world rankings according to the Institute of Science Information’s (ISI*) Science Citation Index (SCI). This 2002 ranking stands a great achievement in the natural sciences for Korea.
(*ISI selects about 3,900 journals globally in the field of natural sciences and produces the rankings, rankings depend on how may numbers of authors belong to a certain university or a nation.)
As impressive as Korean research efforts are, considering unfavorable research conditions, academic development in this field has predominantly focused on “quantitative” aspects and has shown little improvement in its “qualitative” growth. In relation to the number of papers in SCI journals, Seoul National belongs in a first-class category. Almost all engineering departments at Seoul National are on a competitive level with engineering departments at MIT, Stanford, and the University of Michigan in terms of the number of research articles published. However, in considering the number of cases of citation, Seoul National has a long way to go before reaching first-class standards. Nevertheless, we cannot be too critical of Seoul National’s standing in research work. Even if the scope of this argument were to include all universities in Korea, the same conclusion would result. The fact of the matter is, most Korean universities have achieved excellent standing in regard to research quantity output despite unfavorable conditions to conduct research activities. The academic research in Korea as a whole, ranks 13th in the world (equivalent to Korea’s GNP); therefore, we cannot overly criticize the research ability of Korean universities without considering its considerable achievements.
In relation to Seoul National University’s service to society, there are many issues that require consideration. It is a fact that the graduates of Seoul National have been instrumental in shaping the productivity of the nation in various aspects of society. However, there exist negative perceptions of the university among from members and non-members. According to a research agency report I had asked to be conducted, Seoul National is currently viewed negatively in the public eye. Non-members of Seoul National have accused the university of creating an “elitist” environment in Korea and that our graduates enjoy positions in the higher stratum of our society without making any effort to advance the society as a whole.
Setting the Right Course for Seoul National University
Since my appointment as President of Seoul National University, I have been actively engaged in finding ways in which our university can overcome its obstacles and move toward acquiring first-class recognition on all fronts. In joining the ideas of my colleagues with my view of what our university should seek to attain, the following initiatives set out our mission for society and for enhancing the university’s public image.
Seoul National will make every effort to transform its academic teaching style from knowledge dissemination to knowledge creation. Accordingly, faculty will provide their students with lectures and instruction to improve their ability to think critically and creatively. Our students will learn how to “think in and out of the box” in different problem scenarios. In the near future, Seoul National will redesign its academic programs so that students will learn to challenge existing ideas, enhance old ideas, and create new ideas.
With respect to addressing social responsibility and diversification, it is important to stress the value of righteousness, integrity, civic virtue, responsibility, duty, and leadership. Thus, we will create academic programs that teach the importance of these elements in Korean society, in hopes of galvanizing a society of socially conscious leaders who can lead effectively in a rapidly changing global environment. To reinforce this, our students will also learn more about cultural diversity and the global environment.
Our university’s entrance screening procedures should also be revised to include students who are initiative-focused and creative instead of just good test takers. If a more effective student selection process is in place, the chances of creating a more diverse student population is increased, thereby increasing cultural diversity and the introduction of new ideas. Hopefully, in the creation of a more diverse student population, the interaction among them and our academic staff will serve to create a stimulating and international learning environment. We also favor a system that recruits students from various regions of the country so that we can achieve intra-state as well as international diversity with hopes that Seoul National will be able to educate and provide opportunities to our nation as a whole. The system will balance and integrate Korea’s various regions and provide the desirable decentralization of the society’s leaders from the Seoul Metropolitan area. Thus, the entrance screening system for students living in other regions of the nation will be put into effect starting 2005. In relation to the number of students entering the university and its competitiveness, the current policy for expanding will be held back while policies for downscaling and quality-improvement will move forward. As stated earlier, there are too many structures, which may not be needed to enhance quality education and too many students, which exhaust resources. As an example, let us look at Seoul National University’s Center for Writing Skills. The Center operates on a small budget of $400,000 U.S. dollars per year. Given this budget, which is impossible to increase due to the university’s investment in other areas, it is hardly capable of teaching 4,000 incoming students. Therefore, it would only make sense to reduce to the number of incoming students in order for them to receive the best quality of writing instruction. This logic is applicable to other centers and institutions throughout the university. Thus, a reduction in the number of undergraduate and graduate students should occur in order for Seoul National to calculate the “ideal” ratio between students and university resources.
In the area of research, we plan to recruit newly appointed professors under a supplementary system to provide more financial and systematic support for conducting research in new fields of study. In the past, newly appointed professors have found it difficult to secure these types of support.
In the humanities and social sciences, it is difficult to compare the performance of this type of research to that of other countries. Nevertheless, the research in this field has not reached first-class standards. Our university should at least attempt to acquire this level in our humanities and social science disciplines. However, we should strive to be the best in research categories concerning Korea i.e., Korean economic development, Korean conglomerates, Korean reunification, structural reforms in Korea, and the effects of the foreign exchange crisis in Korea. We are planning to develop a Korean studies department, which may set the background for international recognition and expertise in specific issues dealing with Korea. Additionally, we are making effort to increase all dimensions of our library resources in the humanities and social sciences, as these resources are essential for the creation of theory and knowledge.
In the area of natural science involving technology, we have established BioMAX, an associated research institution for life sciences, with the purpose of eventually creating and linking the latest innovations in biotechnology and producing the next generation of leaders in biotechnology areas. The purpose of BioMax is to produce outstanding research and industrialize it by maximizing the use of our university’s resources. Furthermore, it serves to stimulate multidisciplinary initiatives and joint efforts to produce research excellence. Ultimately, research involved with the latest hi-tech knowledge and equipment will encourage the formation of comprehensive systems for multidisciplinary amalgamation such as biotechnology, information technology, nanotechnology to produce bioscience, bioengineering, biomedicine, bioagriculture, etc.
The welfare of university faculty must also be improved to ensure the highest quality of motivation and teaching to our students. When I assumed office, I was taken aback as I discovered that quite a few professors do not have their own housing. To address this, I have proposed a plan to renovate the presidential residence so that more than 150 housing units can be built for professors. Moreover, in the coming years, the number of housing units will increase from 60 to 120 as a result of renovations being conducted on the current professors’ residences. When the 270 housing units are built, most of those housing problems will be solved.
With regard to motivating our academic faculty to do their best, salary ranges for our professors will be upgraded by diverting the government budget from overlap investments. Fortunately, the government and private industries realize the importance of and support salary increases for our professors.
The improvement of our administrative system must also occur. Currently, the hierarchical structure functions from top to bottom, inhibiting the participation and opinions of the staff and faculty. We are set to redesign the organizational structure to reflect a “bottom-up” strategy, which will enable more views and opinions on administration decisions. The university’s council will also be strengthened to balance the power of the President and work with the President’s Office to lead the university effectively. The university’s presidential election system will also be improved to minimize bureaucracy and politics.
Seoul National University has made great strides in producing outstanding graduates that have contributed significantly to building our nation. However, like many institutions worldwide, it must constantly be innovative, flexible, effective, and responsive to meet the ongoing challenges of Korean society as a whole. The university must not become complacent with past achievements and out-dated methods of teaching. By virtue of its monumental achievement in education, Seoul National stands as Korea’s symbol of academic excellence. Consequently, it has also inherited the daunting responsibility of shaping the future of Korea and thereby is also bound to continually improve itself. Thus, the university will constantly seek more improved methods of education and research to reflect its social mission. Some of these innovative methods may mean minimizing the power of the Office of the President. Nevertheless, both our faculty and staff will strive to bring Seoul National to be in the “top 10” of the first-class universities in the world. It is our manifest destiny and moral responsibility to provide the best to academic environment to shape Korea’s future.
Seoul National’s Plea to the Government and Society: The Proper Symbiosis
Society is increasingly demanding that our universities raise the quality of education and research. This means that universities should attempt to meet the demands of a knowledge-based environment by establishing a system that increases the number of highly educated citizens so that innovative knowledge is produced. In order to acquire a (graduate) education system that is internationally competitive, some requirements must be met:
Although we realize that it costs a great deal to raise the qualitative level of education and research, innovative efforts and financial investment in education must be continuous. Unfortunately, Korean society has let universities face the arduous task of improving the quality of its education and research alone. Universities need the constant support of society; it would be impossible for universities to accomplish this without support and assistance. In recent years, investments in education and research have been incremental and not enough to produce a substantial change in the quality of education and research. In order to continually improve the basic standard of education i.e., educational expenses per student, student to professor ratio, etc., there must be constant increases in the investment of educational funds. This fundamental requirement should be the basis of policies introduced to improve education and research.
In order to increase the foundation of new knowledge production, support systems should be provided for scholars assuming ongoing or new research. In order to increase the new knowledge production, supporting systems should be provided during all stages of research. This is the only way to ensure improvement in the quality of research being produced. Even though some support systems are in place, they exist in very few fields of research.
Systems of support for researchers in basic areas of studies are needed. Since the 1997 economic crisis, many talented students have been more inclined to obtain certifications and avoid traditional academic curriculums. In the long-term, this negatively affects the production of robust and substantial knowledge. Without the acquisition of these fundamentals, the ability to “think out of the box” and create new knowledge is made more difficult, if not impossible.
Our universities must have a chance to manage themselves and be free from the control of the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development. This is especially true with respect to strategies to attract qualified Korean students who often study abroad in hopes of receiving a better quality of education. There should be no restriction in university strategies to attract talented students, professors, and efforts to create an innovative curriculum. With respect to competition in research, the regulation of research units should be done on a voluntary basis. Though society has to some extent raised the level of self-governance to its universities, there are still subordinate rules that remain which restrict the full potential and flexibility for the university to fully carry out its mission. The provision of greater autonomy of the university in the areas of education, research, and administration is a necessary requirement to survive environmental changes and challenges. Furthermore, this is connected with the current demand for producing a knowledge-based society.
Conclusion: University Benchmarks
Since the Seoul National University was established in 1946 as Korea’s premier national academic institution, Seoul National University has become a leader of education that comprises of 16 colleges, 4 professional schools, 93 research institutes and supporting facilities, which are located on three campuses throughout the Seoul metropolitan district. Currently, we have 23,000 undergraduate students, 9,000 graduate students, and 1,563 full-time faculty.
Seoul National University’s goal in the years ahead is to build a solid foundation for innovative research activities in the natural sciences as we broaden and deepen our research assets in the humanities and social sciences. The university will also be at the forefront of promoting links with both private and government entities to build cooperative programs to stimulate and achieve major technological and scientific breakthroughs.
To meet the growing challenges of rigorous international academic standards, Seoul National University is recruiting more qualified foreign faculty, many of whom hold distinguished positions in their fields of expertise. Furthermore, we are currently analyzing and revising our education policy and teaching methodologies to create an even higher standard for our students and professors. It is our goal that Seoul National University will be one of the leading academic institutions of the world, providing the highest quality of education, groundbreaking joint research activities, and the ability to instill within our students the important balance of critical and creative thought.
Our graduates play a leading role in every area of Korean society. Indeed, the remarkable economic development and growing international presence of Korea can in many ways, be attributed to our alumni who gave their best to build the foundation for our nation. It is my hope that our future graduates will make important contributions to the world at large.
Professor Un-Chan CHUNG
President, Seoul National University
Society and the University: A Symbiotic Relationship
As President of Seoul National University, my mission is to ensure that the quality of education we provide fulfills our mandate to give students an exceptional academic preparation that will empower them to meet the challenges of today’s society.
The following quote from a colleague at Seoul National conveys the importance of academic institutions, “Education is a precious medal of enlightenment that one earns and wears throughout life; no one can take it away, it is an eternal torch to be passed on to those wishing to achieve a balance between the heart and mind.” I believe these words eloquently capture the purpose of our existence and the immense responsibility that we have in shaping the productive future of our society.
Ultimately, our academic institutions are responsible for producing the nation’s intellectual capital, thereby, instilling the proper methodology for good governance, economic stability, and social welfare. The continuance of this dynamic relationship must not be interrupted. It must remain innovative and open to change to meet the ongoing challenges of our society at large. The danger of the university structure neglecting the importance of its role in society, I believe, is the most credible threat to the future of Korean society.
A symbiotic relationship exists between society and its universities, both of which need each other to sustain a productive human environment. Accordingly, universities should provide the most effective methods to develop creative and critical thinking skills. From this educational foundation, students may effectively absorb knowledge, a sense of responsibility, and awareness. As President of Seoul National University, the daunting responsibility of our nation’s universities to shape Korean society has caused me to reflect on Seoul National’s goals in hopes of producing an even more successful future for our nation.
In the case of Korea, the past forty years of remarkable economic development has been attributed to the effective dissemination of advanced science and technology. In the early phases of economic development, the knowledge that Korea possessed was much less than that of developed countries. Thus, the Korean university’s role at that time was to pass on knowledge gained from universities overseas. The government’s role was to increase the number of educated Koreans. The graduates of our universities used this knowledge to develop the nation at a rapid speed. As a result of this knowledge transfer and an increase in the educated population, Korea was able to grow by 8% annually for the past forty years despite deficient levels of capital and resources.
However, in recent years Korean universities have reached a point of diminishing returns in the transfer and sharing of knowledge from developed nations. As efficient as Korean universities were in sharing knowledge, it has become more evident that our universities lack the ability to create new knowledge. Unfortunately, the current education system relies too much on sharing existing information instead of instilling the creativity, critical thinking, and ingenuity to create new ideas and technology. This issue becomes increasingly relevant since the road to economic prosperity depends on overcoming ongoing technological challenges by way of initiative, innovation and flexibility. The critical juncture we are facing has provided the impetus for me to offer my thoughts on the proper “vision” of the university in hopes of shaping a productive future for Korea.
General Problems in Korean Universities
In the 1980s, Korean universities were at their peak of excellence, but now the state of our universities is in slow decline. Though many universities have been built since the 1980s, they lack in academic quality. The government’s past efforts to increase educational facilities to answer the growing number of students left out the most important factor in creating a university: the quality of education. Thus, Korean universities, while seemingly grand in structure stand far from reaching standards of academic excellence.
During the 1997-98 financial crisis, the IMF financial assistance package provided to Korea also required the real and financial sectors to initiate structural reforms. Consequently, higher levels of transparency have been achieved for both real and financial sectors. The achievement of transparency helped rejuvenate a competitive business environment, reinforcing the Darwin’s “survival of the fittest” theory. However, during this period of intense reform in the Korean economy, there were no such calls for structural reforms for Korea’s universities until now. This lapsed time has made the task of educational reform more burdensome, expensive, and complicated as opportunities for reform were lost and complacency among academia may have set in. As “survival of the fittest” applies to the business environment, it should apply to the academic environment as well. The requirement for structural reforms of Korea’s academic institutions should take place to ensure that only the most capable universities remain responsible for educating the nation. In this manner, capable universities equal a capable nation.
How do we explain the slow decline in the quality of our universities
First, universities have historically suffered from a ”copy-cat” mentality along with other infrastructures in our education system. It seems that all universities in Korea believe that in order to avoid any loss of opportunity, they should adopt or copy what other universities have in order to remain competitive regardless of whether or not it improves the quality of education in their institutions.
Here are three past examples of the “copy-cat” mentality that occurred in the Korean education system:
(1) One of our universities expanded its engineering department when the government advocated recruiting more engineering students as part of the nation’s policy to increase the number of highly educated workers. As a result, other universities expanded their engineering departments.
(2) A university located in a certain region was enlarged with the intention of reinforcing the economy of that particular region; other regions adopted the same exact strategy, whether or not it was deemed as necessary.
(3) A university concentrated on graduate schools as its core and before long, other universities also began to focus on and increase the number of their graduate schools. This resulted in the significant increase in the graduate student population.
Secondly, universities have also relied on economies of scale (the larger an enterprise, the less cost required to produce a unit). Accordingly, universities have been attached to the idea that “the larger the student population, the less cost needed per student.” The number of graduate students is two to four times greater than the amount two decades ago. As a result, educational services have been stretched too thin and are unable to provide a competitive level of excellence on an extensive scale. The number of Korean students enrolled in the nation’s universities is 4.07% of the entire population, making Korea’s university student population, near the largest in the world. The amount of students enrolled at Seoul National University represents 0.06% of the whole population (38,000 enrolled). This immense student population is not common among world-famous universities. According to these statistical conditions and percentages, Seoul National University’s student population is 10 times higher than that of Harvard University, 7 times higher than the University of California at Berkley, and 3 times higher than the University of Tokyo. The total number of university students enrolled at Seoul National, Yonsei, and Korea University is equal to 0.18% of the Korean population whereas the total number of students at Harvard, MIT, and U.C. Berkley represents only 0.02% of the U.S. population.
Lastly, each year almost 120,000 students enroll in Korea’s top three universities: Seoul National University, Korea University, and Yonsei University the so-called SKY universities. The total population of Korea is 47 million people. This means that SKY university graduates will undertake most key leadership roles in Korea; this is further reinforced by the fact that a close kinship of alma maters exists in our society. Ultimately, the monopoly of influential power created by the SKY network is viewed by the public as “elitist” and non-representative of the population as a whole. Additionally, the creation of such an imbalance of power and influence in Korean society deters Korea from realizing the full extent of diversity and social integration. In order to prevent the declining quality of Korean universities, which hinders its ability to shape a productive society, our universities should strive to achieve four goals: (1) diversification and social integration of the nation through the creation of effective educational programs, (2) recruitment of qualified academic and administrative talent, (3) proper adjustment of the nation’s education policy to serve the long-term needs of society, and (4) reduction of large and unnecessary educational facilities in order to concentrate more resources on sustaining academic excellence.
A Critical Light on Seoul National University
Seoul National University stands as Korea’s premier academic institution. However, we are also at a critical juncture in our history and are challenged with attaining first-class standards. After the 1990s, Korean society and global market forces have made universities realize that the effective transfer of present knowledge falls short in attaining first-class academic excellence and a productive labor force. In recent years, growing criticism from Korean society has emerged, blaming universities for not actively pursuing ways to create an academic environment that is capable of creating “new” knowledge. The contemporary world is able to produce massive amounts of new knowledge by means of systemizing structures for gathering information. Thus, the information society is always evolving and changing to the point where today’s new knowledge lifespan is limited to months and years. It is these incredible dimensions of change and technological innovation that call for our universities to be innovative, effective, flexible, and over-arching in its vision.
Unfortunately, almost all universities in Korea (including Seoul National) are not flexible or innovative enough to meet the demands of today’s information society. This means that our universities are neither properly structured nor equipped with the necessary elements to begin effectively teaching “knowledge creation.” Since knowledge creation was never actively pursued in the history of Korea’s universities, there exists no foundation for its initiation. Thus, our society lacks the imaginative human resource and innovative policy mechanisms to transform our educational structures from a strategy of “quantitative expansion through imitation” to “qualitative growth through creation”. The most damaging effect of this new knowledge deficiency is exemplified by Korea’s 1997 financial crisis, which forced the nation to accept financial relief from the International Monetary Fund. From this economic crisis, Korean society has learned an important lesson about the consequences of not being able to teach our society’s labor force to deal with change.
In the case of Seoul National University students, I find that most students are very efficient in memorizing and “filling in the blanks” on exams. For the most part, they are taught to listen and apply what they have learned. Unfortunately, this only accounts for part of the learning experience. When our students are asked to write thesis papers, most find it very difficult to apply what they’ve learned in an original way. Moreover, a lot of students find it difficult to solve problems in a new situation. The inability for our teachers and students to “think out of the box” seems to be the most credible threat to the productivity of Korean society.
With respect to research, Seoul National University has heavily stressed its importance over the past 10 years. This concentration on research was supplemented by the government’s BK21 program. As a result, in the field of natural sciences Seoul National assumed 34th place in world rankings according to the Institute of Science Information’s (ISI*) Science Citation Index (SCI). This 2002 ranking stands a great achievement in the natural sciences for Korea.
(*ISI selects about 3,900 journals globally in the field of natural sciences and produces the rankings, rankings depend on how may numbers of authors belong to a certain university or a nation.)
As impressive as Korean research efforts are, considering unfavorable research conditions, academic development in this field has predominantly focused on “quantitative” aspects and has shown little improvement in its “qualitative” growth. In relation to the number of papers in SCI journals, Seoul National belongs in a first-class category. Almost all engineering departments at Seoul National are on a competitive level with engineering departments at MIT, Stanford, and the University of Michigan in terms of the number of research articles published. However, in considering the number of cases of citation, Seoul National has a long way to go before reaching first-class standards. Nevertheless, we cannot be too critical of Seoul National’s standing in research work. Even if the scope of this argument were to include all universities in Korea, the same conclusion would result. The fact of the matter is, most Korean universities have achieved excellent standing in regard to research quantity output despite unfavorable conditions to conduct research activities. The academic research in Korea as a whole, ranks 13th in the world (equivalent to Korea’s GNP); therefore, we cannot overly criticize the research ability of Korean universities without considering its considerable achievements.
In relation to Seoul National University’s service to society, there are many issues that require consideration. It is a fact that the graduates of Seoul National have been instrumental in shaping the productivity of the nation in various aspects of society. However, there exist negative perceptions of the university among from members and non-members. According to a research agency report I had asked to be conducted, Seoul National is currently viewed negatively in the public eye. Non-members of Seoul National have accused the university of creating an “elitist” environment in Korea and that our graduates enjoy positions in the higher stratum of our society without making any effort to advance the society as a whole.
Setting the Right Course for Seoul National University
Since my appointment as President of Seoul National University, I have been actively engaged in finding ways in which our university can overcome its obstacles and move toward acquiring first-class recognition on all fronts. In joining the ideas of my colleagues with my view of what our university should seek to attain, the following initiatives set out our mission for society and for enhancing the university’s public image.
Seoul National will make every effort to transform its academic teaching style from knowledge dissemination to knowledge creation. Accordingly, faculty will provide their students with lectures and instruction to improve their ability to think critically and creatively. Our students will learn how to “think in and out of the box” in different problem scenarios. In the near future, Seoul National will redesign its academic programs so that students will learn to challenge existing ideas, enhance old ideas, and create new ideas.
With respect to addressing social responsibility and diversification, it is important to stress the value of righteousness, integrity, civic virtue, responsibility, duty, and leadership. Thus, we will create academic programs that teach the importance of these elements in Korean society, in hopes of galvanizing a society of socially conscious leaders who can lead effectively in a rapidly changing global environment. To reinforce this, our students will also learn more about cultural diversity and the global environment.
Our university’s entrance screening procedures should also be revised to include students who are initiative-focused and creative instead of just good test takers. If a more effective student selection process is in place, the chances of creating a more diverse student population is increased, thereby increasing cultural diversity and the introduction of new ideas. Hopefully, in the creation of a more diverse student population, the interaction among them and our academic staff will serve to create a stimulating and international learning environment. We also favor a system that recruits students from various regions of the country so that we can achieve intra-state as well as international diversity with hopes that Seoul National will be able to educate and provide opportunities to our nation as a whole. The system will balance and integrate Korea’s various regions and provide the desirable decentralization of the society’s leaders from the Seoul Metropolitan area. Thus, the entrance screening system for students living in other regions of the nation will be put into effect starting 2005. In relation to the number of students entering the university and its competitiveness, the current policy for expanding will be held back while policies for downscaling and quality-improvement will move forward. As stated earlier, there are too many structures, which may not be needed to enhance quality education and too many students, which exhaust resources. As an example, let us look at Seoul National University’s Center for Writing Skills. The Center operates on a small budget of $400,000 U.S. dollars per year. Given this budget, which is impossible to increase due to the university’s investment in other areas, it is hardly capable of teaching 4,000 incoming students. Therefore, it would only make sense to reduce to the number of incoming students in order for them to receive the best quality of writing instruction. This logic is applicable to other centers and institutions throughout the university. Thus, a reduction in the number of undergraduate and graduate students should occur in order for Seoul National to calculate the “ideal” ratio between students and university resources.
In the area of research, we plan to recruit newly appointed professors under a supplementary system to provide more financial and systematic support for conducting research in new fields of study. In the past, newly appointed professors have found it difficult to secure these types of support.
In the humanities and social sciences, it is difficult to compare the performance of this type of research to that of other countries. Nevertheless, the research in this field has not reached first-class standards. Our university should at least attempt to acquire this level in our humanities and social science disciplines. However, we should strive to be the best in research categories concerning Korea i.e., Korean economic development, Korean conglomerates, Korean reunification, structural reforms in Korea, and the effects of the foreign exchange crisis in Korea. We are planning to develop a Korean studies department, which may set the background for international recognition and expertise in specific issues dealing with Korea. Additionally, we are making effort to increase all dimensions of our library resources in the humanities and social sciences, as these resources are essential for the creation of theory and knowledge.
In the area of natural science involving technology, we have established BioMAX, an associated research institution for life sciences, with the purpose of eventually creating and linking the latest innovations in biotechnology and producing the next generation of leaders in biotechnology areas. The purpose of BioMax is to produce outstanding research and industrialize it by maximizing the use of our university’s resources. Furthermore, it serves to stimulate multidisciplinary initiatives and joint efforts to produce research excellence. Ultimately, research involved with the latest hi-tech knowledge and equipment will encourage the formation of comprehensive systems for multidisciplinary amalgamation such as biotechnology, information technology, nanotechnology to produce bioscience, bioengineering, biomedicine, bioagriculture, etc.
The welfare of university faculty must also be improved to ensure the highest quality of motivation and teaching to our students. When I assumed office, I was taken aback as I discovered that quite a few professors do not have their own housing. To address this, I have proposed a plan to renovate the presidential residence so that more than 150 housing units can be built for professors. Moreover, in the coming years, the number of housing units will increase from 60 to 120 as a result of renovations being conducted on the current professors’ residences. When the 270 housing units are built, most of those housing problems will be solved.
With regard to motivating our academic faculty to do their best, salary ranges for our professors will be upgraded by diverting the government budget from overlap investments. Fortunately, the government and private industries realize the importance of and support salary increases for our professors.
The improvement of our administrative system must also occur. Currently, the hierarchical structure functions from top to bottom, inhibiting the participation and opinions of the staff and faculty. We are set to redesign the organizational structure to reflect a “bottom-up” strategy, which will enable more views and opinions on administration decisions. The university’s council will also be strengthened to balance the power of the President and work with the President’s Office to lead the university effectively. The university’s presidential election system will also be improved to minimize bureaucracy and politics.
Seoul National University has made great strides in producing outstanding graduates that have contributed significantly to building our nation. However, like many institutions worldwide, it must constantly be innovative, flexible, effective, and responsive to meet the ongoing challenges of Korean society as a whole. The university must not become complacent with past achievements and out-dated methods of teaching. By virtue of its monumental achievement in education, Seoul National stands as Korea’s symbol of academic excellence. Consequently, it has also inherited the daunting responsibility of shaping the future of Korea and thereby is also bound to continually improve itself. Thus, the university will constantly seek more improved methods of education and research to reflect its social mission. Some of these innovative methods may mean minimizing the power of the Office of the President. Nevertheless, both our faculty and staff will strive to bring Seoul National to be in the “top 10” of the first-class universities in the world. It is our manifest destiny and moral responsibility to provide the best to academic environment to shape Korea’s future.
Seoul National’s Plea to the Government and Society: The Proper Symbiosis
Society is increasingly demanding that our universities raise the quality of education and research. This means that universities should attempt to meet the demands of a knowledge-based environment by establishing a system that increases the number of highly educated citizens so that innovative knowledge is produced. In order to acquire a (graduate) education system that is internationally competitive, some requirements must be met:
Although we realize that it costs a great deal to raise the qualitative level of education and research, innovative efforts and financial investment in education must be continuous. Unfortunately, Korean society has let universities face the arduous task of improving the quality of its education and research alone. Universities need the constant support of society; it would be impossible for universities to accomplish this without support and assistance. In recent years, investments in education and research have been incremental and not enough to produce a substantial change in the quality of education and research. In order to continually improve the basic standard of education i.e., educational expenses per student, student to professor ratio, etc., there must be constant increases in the investment of educational funds. This fundamental requirement should be the basis of policies introduced to improve education and research.
In order to increase the foundation of new knowledge production, support systems should be provided for scholars assuming ongoing or new research. In order to increase the new knowledge production, supporting systems should be provided during all stages of research. This is the only way to ensure improvement in the quality of research being produced. Even though some support systems are in place, they exist in very few fields of research.
Systems of support for researchers in basic areas of studies are needed. Since the 1997 economic crisis, many talented students have been more inclined to obtain certifications and avoid traditional academic curriculums. In the long-term, this negatively affects the production of robust and substantial knowledge. Without the acquisition of these fundamentals, the ability to “think out of the box” and create new knowledge is made more difficult, if not impossible.
Our universities must have a chance to manage themselves and be free from the control of the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development. This is especially true with respect to strategies to attract qualified Korean students who often study abroad in hopes of receiving a better quality of education. There should be no restriction in university strategies to attract talented students, professors, and efforts to create an innovative curriculum. With respect to competition in research, the regulation of research units should be done on a voluntary basis. Though society has to some extent raised the level of self-governance to its universities, there are still subordinate rules that remain which restrict the full potential and flexibility for the university to fully carry out its mission. The provision of greater autonomy of the university in the areas of education, research, and administration is a necessary requirement to survive environmental changes and challenges. Furthermore, this is connected with the current demand for producing a knowledge-based society.
Conclusion: University Benchmarks
Since the Seoul National University was established in 1946 as Korea’s premier national academic institution, Seoul National University has become a leader of education that comprises of 16 colleges, 4 professional schools, 93 research institutes and supporting facilities, which are located on three campuses throughout the Seoul metropolitan district. Currently, we have 23,000 undergraduate students, 9,000 graduate students, and 1,563 full-time faculty.
Seoul National University’s goal in the years ahead is to build a solid foundation for innovative research activities in the natural sciences as we broaden and deepen our research assets in the humanities and social sciences. The university will also be at the forefront of promoting links with both private and government entities to build cooperative programs to stimulate and achieve major technological and scientific breakthroughs.
To meet the growing challenges of rigorous international academic standards, Seoul National University is recruiting more qualified foreign faculty, many of whom hold distinguished positions in their fields of expertise. Furthermore, we are currently analyzing and revising our education policy and teaching methodologies to create an even higher standard for our students and professors. It is our goal that Seoul National University will be one of the leading academic institutions of the world, providing the highest quality of education, groundbreaking joint research activities, and the ability to instill within our students the important balance of critical and creative thought.
Our graduates play a leading role in every area of Korean society. Indeed, the remarkable economic development and growing international presence of Korea can in many ways, be attributed to our alumni who gave their best to build the foundation for our nation. It is my hope that our future graduates will make important contributions to the world at large.