By Na Jeong-ju
Suh Nam-pyo, president of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), said Wednesday he would resign from the post in March next year.
The 76-year-old former MIT professor is now serving another four-year term as the KAIST chief that was supposed to end in July 2014, but has been at loggerheads with the school’s board Chairman Oh Myung, a former science and technology minister.
“I am being compelled to leave the school. That’s a great humiliation for me,” the Korean-born naturalized American said during a press conference in Seoul. “I have resisted, but I think it’s time to quit. My last official duty will be to participate in a regular board meeting planned in March 2013.”
Oh has repeatedly demanded Suh’s resignation.
“Oh has told me to quit, repeatedly saying that’s what President Lee Myung-bak wanted. I don’t know whether it’s true,” Suh said. “Oh may have lied, but it’s clear that Oh attempted to oust me and choose my successor while Lee is in office.”
“Oh has been behind a politically motivated move to kick me out since he became the board’s chairman two years ago. He should take responsibility for the damage he has done to the school,” he said.
Suh said he will engage in the screening of candidates for the next KAIST president as a board member, saying a competent scholar who is respected worldwide and has excellent leadership, not a political figure, should lead the school. The board plans to hold an extraordinary meeting next week to discuss the matter.
Suh’s early resignation leaves another bad precedent in the school’s history. Suh’s predecessor, Robert Laughlin, a Stanford University professor who won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1998, was forced to quit early amid a struggle with a group of KAIST professors.
The board initially planned to vote on cancelling a contract with Suh. However, it dropped the plan in July after Suh vowed to launch a legal battle against it if the contract was cancelled.
Suh has engaged in disputes with many professors over the way he manages the school. The major bones of contention were stricter tenure examinations and a merit-based pay system for professors, implemented by Suh in an effort to enhance the school’s research capabilities.
Early this year, the professors’ council raised allegations of patent theft by Suh. Police cleared him of the allegations in June after an initial investigation. The case is currently being investigated by prosecutors.
Suh is also unpopular among students due to various programs he adopted to spur competition. Suh introduced many English-language lectures and dropped a no-tuition policy for KAIST students and had underachieving pupils pay tuition. As a result, several students have committed suicide on the campus since early 2011.
Suh insisted his reform programs should continue even after he leaves the school. He proposed that presidents of foreign colleges and CEOs of global firms be included in the board so that the school can better compete with top schools worldwide, such as Harvard and MIT.
“I dedicated myself to make KAIST one of the top 10 universities in the world. I hope my successor will accomplish the goal,” he said.