Selected Speeches
Dr. Leeserved as the President of SNU from 2006 to 2010. These are selected speeches during his presidency.
2007 Global University Presidents' Summit (Oct. 11~12, 2007)
HIT: 12972
Keynote Speech
At Global University Presidents' Summit
The Future of Universities and Academic Research
President Jang-Moo Lee
President of Seoul National University
October 11, 2007
1. The Future of Universities
The societal, political, and economic circumstances in which today's universities must operate are so complex that it is admittedly difficult to anticipate the future of universities. However, examining the current state of affairs is helpful in mapping the road ahead because universities are not only a part of society but also key actors that lead social change.
First, engagement and interaction will expand among diverse countries and cultures due to our increasingly knowledge-based society. This development is undoubtedly accelerated by science and technology. In addition, the problems that human beings must solve will become ever more complicated due to the sheer speed of change and development.
Over the centuries, universities have developed traditions and ideals through intellectual development and cultural exploration. Recently, however, the debate over their responsibilities has drawn much attention. On the one hand, some critics argue that universities should provide better education to their students and make advanced academic achievement. Furthermore, they emphasize that universities must make greater contributions to local economies and national competitiveness alike.
On the other hand, other critics contend that universities are disproportionately pursuing their narrow interests instead of contributing to the mutual prosperity of humankind and cultural development. From this perspective, universities are seen much like private enterprises that only act upon their own self-interest and gain, ignoring the essential values of societal development. Such critics severely criticize this 'academic capitalism'.
The first opinion asserts the need for universities' increasing competitiveness and productivity, whereas the latter calls upon universities to reflect on their core, most meaningful functions. It is difficult for university administrators to reconcile these two conflicting viewpoints.
2. Education and Research at Universities
Based on these debates, let me advance my own recommendations for the future direction of universities in a global context.
First of all, universities must contribute to sustainable development, global culture, and the improved happiness of all humankind, even in the era of accelerated competition and growing nationalism. To achieve this, universities should devote themselves to their core role as institutions of education and academic research. Fierce competition has prompted many major research-oriented universities to focus primarily on graduate students than undergraduates and on research rather than education. This shift in emphasis has clearly increased these universities' research productivity and led to their global competitiveness at the cost of education.
Secondly, universities must pay attention to the quality as well as the quantity of their productive output. Because many evaluation indices are quantitative, professors tend to emphasize knowledge-producing activities that are visible and easily measured. However, knowledge produced in universities needs also to be examined with an eye for the ways in which such knowledge can benefit society as a whole in terms of humanistic values and meanings, not only in terms of its economic value.
Next, concerning the research approach, I believe that the best research is possible when we not only specialize in our respective disciplines but also maintain a broad interest in various fields. For example, interdisciplinary approaches such as the encounter of engineering and the humanities, the intersection of art and the natural sciences, or the fusion of engineering and medicine can generate much-needed breakthroughs and push us to progress beyond the present.
Third, universities need to accept more foreign professors and students to fulfill our new historical mission to build the foundation for mutual understanding and global cooperation. At the same time, however, the internationalization of universities should set the humanistic goal of improving the common condition of all humankind. To be more concrete, exchange programs for scholars and students as well as joint lectures, distance education, joint programs among universities, and operation of shared degree courses all promote cross-border cooperation.
As a part of such efforts, Seoul National University has offered a joint lecture course titled 'Development of World Products' across three continents for 7 years with the University of Michigan and the Technishe Universitaet Berlin, and has operated shared classes or remote courses with many universities such as the University of Tokyo and Beijing University. Moreover, we have formally instituted 530 global exchange programs with a multitude of universities including Columbia University and Northwestern University.
3. The Promotion of Conditions
How, then, can we succeed in our multiple missions? Several conditions are required in order for universities to fulfill their roles within society. First, universities need to secure far more public resources. Universities are essentially public institutions operating for the benefit of their countries and humankind, not private entities pursuing narrow self-interest notwithstanding our competition against one another for survival. The educational and research activities of universities benefit everyone from actual graduates to local communities, companies, countries, and the globe. The principle of payment by beneficiary therefore should not be applied to universities alone. If universities were to receive public resources based solely on a competitive basis, they would naturally concentrate on applied research that can bring a short-term return on investment at the expense of long-term investment and other research that may have a profound but not immediately measurable impact on society. Accordingly, society must invest more public resources in universities.
Second, governments should ensure comprehensive autonomy to universities with more flexible governing structures. Due to the nature of education and research, excessive government intervention can decrease the creativity of universities and eventually cause depreciation in the quality of education and research. This flexibility in governance will help universities to explore their own future under current conditions.
Lastly, universities need to become more flexible in order to meet societal challenges and changes. In particular, segmented disciplines with little interaction with other academic fields must open up and incorporate a broad range of perspectives and positions. Such openness is the source of new knowledge and can be the basis for internationalism and the power of internationalization of universities. From now on, universities will be evaluated not simply by the quantity of articles and dissertations that they produce but by the quality of their research based on this openness. Moreover, the internalization of our universities should be assessed not only by looking at the numbers of foreign professors and students but also by how much universities contribute to the creation of a truly global community.
At Global University Presidents' Summit
The Future of Universities and Academic Research
President Jang-Moo Lee
President of Seoul National University
October 11, 2007
1. The Future of Universities
The societal, political, and economic circumstances in which today's universities must operate are so complex that it is admittedly difficult to anticipate the future of universities. However, examining the current state of affairs is helpful in mapping the road ahead because universities are not only a part of society but also key actors that lead social change.
First, engagement and interaction will expand among diverse countries and cultures due to our increasingly knowledge-based society. This development is undoubtedly accelerated by science and technology. In addition, the problems that human beings must solve will become ever more complicated due to the sheer speed of change and development.
Over the centuries, universities have developed traditions and ideals through intellectual development and cultural exploration. Recently, however, the debate over their responsibilities has drawn much attention. On the one hand, some critics argue that universities should provide better education to their students and make advanced academic achievement. Furthermore, they emphasize that universities must make greater contributions to local economies and national competitiveness alike.
On the other hand, other critics contend that universities are disproportionately pursuing their narrow interests instead of contributing to the mutual prosperity of humankind and cultural development. From this perspective, universities are seen much like private enterprises that only act upon their own self-interest and gain, ignoring the essential values of societal development. Such critics severely criticize this 'academic capitalism'.
The first opinion asserts the need for universities' increasing competitiveness and productivity, whereas the latter calls upon universities to reflect on their core, most meaningful functions. It is difficult for university administrators to reconcile these two conflicting viewpoints.
2. Education and Research at Universities
Based on these debates, let me advance my own recommendations for the future direction of universities in a global context.
First of all, universities must contribute to sustainable development, global culture, and the improved happiness of all humankind, even in the era of accelerated competition and growing nationalism. To achieve this, universities should devote themselves to their core role as institutions of education and academic research. Fierce competition has prompted many major research-oriented universities to focus primarily on graduate students than undergraduates and on research rather than education. This shift in emphasis has clearly increased these universities' research productivity and led to their global competitiveness at the cost of education.
Secondly, universities must pay attention to the quality as well as the quantity of their productive output. Because many evaluation indices are quantitative, professors tend to emphasize knowledge-producing activities that are visible and easily measured. However, knowledge produced in universities needs also to be examined with an eye for the ways in which such knowledge can benefit society as a whole in terms of humanistic values and meanings, not only in terms of its economic value.
Next, concerning the research approach, I believe that the best research is possible when we not only specialize in our respective disciplines but also maintain a broad interest in various fields. For example, interdisciplinary approaches such as the encounter of engineering and the humanities, the intersection of art and the natural sciences, or the fusion of engineering and medicine can generate much-needed breakthroughs and push us to progress beyond the present.
Third, universities need to accept more foreign professors and students to fulfill our new historical mission to build the foundation for mutual understanding and global cooperation. At the same time, however, the internationalization of universities should set the humanistic goal of improving the common condition of all humankind. To be more concrete, exchange programs for scholars and students as well as joint lectures, distance education, joint programs among universities, and operation of shared degree courses all promote cross-border cooperation.
As a part of such efforts, Seoul National University has offered a joint lecture course titled 'Development of World Products' across three continents for 7 years with the University of Michigan and the Technishe Universitaet Berlin, and has operated shared classes or remote courses with many universities such as the University of Tokyo and Beijing University. Moreover, we have formally instituted 530 global exchange programs with a multitude of universities including Columbia University and Northwestern University.
3. The Promotion of Conditions
How, then, can we succeed in our multiple missions? Several conditions are required in order for universities to fulfill their roles within society. First, universities need to secure far more public resources. Universities are essentially public institutions operating for the benefit of their countries and humankind, not private entities pursuing narrow self-interest notwithstanding our competition against one another for survival. The educational and research activities of universities benefit everyone from actual graduates to local communities, companies, countries, and the globe. The principle of payment by beneficiary therefore should not be applied to universities alone. If universities were to receive public resources based solely on a competitive basis, they would naturally concentrate on applied research that can bring a short-term return on investment at the expense of long-term investment and other research that may have a profound but not immediately measurable impact on society. Accordingly, society must invest more public resources in universities.
Second, governments should ensure comprehensive autonomy to universities with more flexible governing structures. Due to the nature of education and research, excessive government intervention can decrease the creativity of universities and eventually cause depreciation in the quality of education and research. This flexibility in governance will help universities to explore their own future under current conditions.
Lastly, universities need to become more flexible in order to meet societal challenges and changes. In particular, segmented disciplines with little interaction with other academic fields must open up and incorporate a broad range of perspectives and positions. Such openness is the source of new knowledge and can be the basis for internationalism and the power of internationalization of universities. From now on, universities will be evaluated not simply by the quantity of articles and dissertations that they produce but by the quality of their research based on this openness. Moreover, the internalization of our universities should be assessed not only by looking at the numbers of foreign professors and students but also by how much universities contribute to the creation of a truly global community.