Top science university's president under pressure to quit

DAEJEON (Yonhap) -- The country's top science university said Friday its board of directors is pushing to remove its president for mismanagement.

The council of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) has scheduled a motion on whether to end its contract with the president, Suh Nam-pyo, and plans to deal with the matter during an emergency meeting next Friday, according to the school.

Suh, who began his second four-year term in 2010, has come under fire for introducing a tuition system that links the amount of fees charged to each student to their academic achievements, resulting in pressure-packed classrooms.

Calls for his resignation have grown after the school, based in Daejeon, some 160 kilometers south of Seoul, had a series of suicides by students and a professor since last year. Most recently, a KAIST student was found dead in April on the school campus in an apparent suicide.

The council adopted the motion to terminate Suh's contract, rather than dismiss him, as no clear cause for dismissal, such as illegalities, have been detected, according to the school.

If the motion for the revocation of his contract is approved, Suh will be relieved from his post after a three-month grace period.