Kim Rahn is the managing editor of The Korea Times. Since joining the company in 2003, she has covered various beats including the presidential office, Seoul city government, the Bank of Korea and the tourism industry. In 2014, she won the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) award for her coverage of the ordeals of migrant women in Korea.
Another student kills himself at KAIST
By Kim Rahn
Another student at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) killed himself by jumping off a school building, Tuesday.
The suicide follows four students and a professor taking their own lives between January and April last year at one of the nation’s most prestigious schools.
According to police, a student found the body of the unidentified student, 23, on the lawn in front of the school’s dormitory in Daejeon at around 5:40 a.m. and notified the police.
Police secured surveillance camera recordings that showed the student came out of his dorm room and climbed up the stairs to the rooftop.
In his room, they also found a note in which he said his passion was waning and he worried about his future and career. He also wrote: “I apologize to my family. Mom, dad, I love you.”
Considering the surveillance camera footage and the note, police assume the student took his own life by jumping from the roof. They are looking into the exact circumstances.
KAIST President Suh Nam-pyo and professors held an emergency meeting after the incident was reported.
The case is reminiscent of the series of suicides in early 2011.
Students at that time blamed the school’s scholarship and credit system, requiring students whose grades were poor to pay more tuition. Due to students’ criticism that the system incited severe competition, it was abolished in July.
In the process of changing the system, students and professors promoting reforms clashed with Suh, calling on him to step down.
The school said it has tried to relieve students of stress through various improvements since last year’s deaths, but the latest suicide will make students call for more fundamental measures.
A tweeter said, “Another suicide of a student at the prestigious KAIST. This came from the social malady of an achievement-oriented atmosphere. That’s because we don’t value the process but only the result.”
Another said: “Another student has killed himself. Well, suicides of other non-prestigious colleges in provinces are not reported, but the number of such people taking their own lives is probably much larger. That of college graduates who fail to get a job, too.”