 |
| Jeon Kyung-hoon, left, the president of Samsung Electronics, poses with Chung Jin-taek, the president of Korea University, during a ceremony to mark their agreement to foster talent in the telecommunications major at Korea University in Seoul, Jan 17. Courtesy of Samsung |
By Baek Byung-yeul
Samsung and other companies are increasing their cooperative projects with universities by sponsoring schools to launch new majors and offering job opportunities to incoming students, with emerging technologies such as battery, telecommunications, display and artificial intelligence (AI) expected to become major revenue sources.
Industry officials said Wednesday that they are increasingly sponsoring universities to open new majors in the fields they need in order to foster talent for these areas. They added that increasing industry-academia partnerships is in fact a desperate measure, due to the fact that the current education system does not cultivate people who can be put to work immediately in rapidly developing fields.
"We put a lot of efforts into training new employees who join the company as engineers in order to improve their basic understanding of batteries. This is because the battery industry has grown exponentially in recent years, rather than universities increasing the number of students in related fields," an industry official in the local battery industry said.
"Companies are trying to grow their businesses in this emerging field as soon as possible. In this situation, the only thing we can do is increase corporate sponsorship deals with universities," the official added.
The latest example came from Samsung Electronics, as the tech giant agreed with Korea University to establish a Next-generation Telecommunications major at the school on Jan. 17.
Under the agreement, Korea University will select 30 new students for the newly established department every year from 2023. These students, majoring in the telecommunications course, will grow into experts in the field through a practical, customized curriculum.
Samsung will provide full tuition and other subsidies for the students, as well as various opportunities, such as participation in a company internship and taking part in overseas academic conferences. After graduating, the students are guaranteed jobs at Samsung.
Jeon Kyung-hoon, the president and head of Samsung Electronics' network business, said that it had decided to cooperate with the school, "To foster talent in the telecommunications sector, where hardware and software technologies converge."
Samsung has been partnering with not only Korea University, but also with other prominent universities, such as Pohang University of Science and Technology and Seoul National University in the telecommunications field.
Samsung is currently supporting seven universities in the telecommunications and semiconductor sectors. The company expects that the success of such industry-academia cooperation projects will subsequently help Korea take the lead in various industry fields.
LG Energy Solution last year agreed with Korea University and Yonsei University to establish a department at the former and graduate programs at the latter in relation to the battery industry. Another battery company, Samsung SDI, also agreed with Hanyang University to nurture students skilled in battery technology.
LG Display also joined hands with Yonsei University to open a display engineering department.
Naver, which is considered the best for AI among Korea's companies, also decided to launch a research center for AI technology with Seoul National University and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST).
