No more interference

Let KAIST decide on Suh' re-election bid

The government has pledged to take a hands-off policy to allow more autonomy in higher learning institutions so that they can have greater independence in their school operations. However, a recent incident indicates that the administration is trying to backpedal on its promise of noninterference.

The case in point concerns a bid by Suh Nam-pyo, the president of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), to seek a second term. The nation's prestigious higher learning institution held a board of directors meeting on June 15 to decide whether to approve Suh's re-election as his term is to expire on July 13. But it has delayed voting until a new meeting set for this Friday.

The problem is that officials of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology were allegedly putting pressure on some KAIST directors to block Suh's re-election. According to media reports, even several lawmakers of the governing Grand National Party have requested the school directors to vote against him. How could such a thing take place despite the government's much-avowed policy of nonintervention?

If the reports are true, the Lee Myung-bak administration cannot avoid criticism that it has not only breached its major policy guidelines but also tried to derail the ongoing KAIST reform. If the board yields to the pressure, it might set a bad precedent that could harm the independence of school operations. This would also have negative implications on the entire education sector.

It is hard to understand why the officials and lawmakers are turning against Suh, who has been at the vanguard of KAIST reform since his inauguration in July 2006. Suh is a world-renowned scholar who earned a doctorate in mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and had taught as a professor there for 30 years. He might be being slammed for imposing MIT-style reform on KAIST.

But he is credited with bringing drastic changes to the nation's top science and engineering institute. He has initiated faculty reform, kicking out 35 incompetent professors over the last four years. It marked the first time since KAIST's establishment in 1971 that any underperforming professors have been dismissed.

Suh is also praised for pressing ahead with admissions reform to recruit smarter students. He has staged a fundraising campaign to receive 130 billion won ($105 million) in donations from people at home and abroad. Although his aggressive reform sparked resistance from some diehard faculty members due to his lack of communication with them, Suh has been synonymous with pioneering school reform.

Against this backdrop, the move against Suh can only be seen as a ploy to install a pro-government figure as the chief of KAIST. The administration should give up its attempt to tame higher learning institutions through meddling in school affairs. Officials and politicians must bear in mind that KAIST is not a state-run corporation or commercial bank which panders to the government to appoint President Lee's confidants as their CEOs.