By Lee Sung-ho, Ryu Ji-jung and Kim Jae-won
As seen in devices like smartphones and smart TVs, software has displaced raw hardware performance as one of the main factors in determining product competitiveness.
With IT and non-IT businesses in Korea facing increasingly strong challenges from advanced global enterprises on one level, and from Chinese companies on another, it is urgent that Korean firms expand the capabilities of their software workforce.
To enhance its IT industry competitiveness, Korea will need to focus on the “three Ps” ― products, processes, and people. Universities will play a core role in increasing software competitiveness in the three Ps.
In products, universities must use interdisciplinary research and education to instill skills in their graduates that are usable in diverse industries, rather than focusing solely on imparting knowledge of computers.
In processes, universities need to build skills in management of software engineering, as well as collaboration and communication skills to work with developers in a worldwide software ecosystem.
In people, universities need to provide students with sufficient hands-on experience of actual projects so that they are ready for work upon graduation, rather than focusing solely on convergence capabilities.
On the input side, companies have long raised concerns of diminishing ability to secure quality talent along with weakening competitiveness in their software workforce due to issues at universities.
Over the last four years, annual admission quotas for software-related departments have steadily declined, while entrance exam rankings for computer science majors have consistently headed downwards.
On the process side, Korean universities’ computer engineering and computer science curricula are heavily focused on hardware or application software, and have relatively few offerings in software development methodology.
At the faculty level, research-focused evaluation of performance appears to be one cause of the low degree of satisfaction with education.
The Korean government’s support for university projects has mostly prioritized research and development (R&D), and its key selection criterion for allocation of public funds is research performance. Research is also the most important factor in the ranking of universities by domestic and foreign media firms all over the world.
Such excessive emphasis on research in evaluating faculty performance and institutional quality has made it difficult to motivate universities and professors to prioritize teaching.
At the student level, poor preparation for class and low levels of participation have resulted in deterioration in the quality of computer engineering majors. In survey responses, 44.1 percent of students said that they spend less than five hours per week studying for their major on their own.
In Korea, academia-industry programs have been implemented on a small scale by some universities ― in 2008, 32.1 percent of tertiary institutions were reported to run IT-related academia industry programs.
Universities in the U.S. emphasized student understanding of basic theories in the academic major while building practical work skills through lab work.
Both research-oriented and teaching-oriented institutions also emphasize “capstone courses” ― courses that impart creative engineering design.
Universities also actively revise their curriculum to reflect current trends in computer science. Practical graduate programs akin to MBA programs have been developed in the U.S.
Recently, “software engineering masters programs” that integrate computer science with management are spreading as well.
Obtaining a master of science (MSc) in software engineering goes beyond simple acquisition of computer skills to cultivate business abilities like customer demand analysis and efficient project management.
At universities in Finland and Sweden, over 80 percent of the total credits required for graduation are related to the major, and internship and a thesis concerning industry-related matters are mandatory ways of providing on-site experience.
In the case of Finland, Aalto University runs a “Design Factory,” an education and start-up space in which academia-industry collaboration takes place.
IT campuses in India also maintain a high percentage of mandatory courses among major course requirements and constantly strive to equip students with the ability to adapt to rapid changes by strengthening knowledge in their major discipline and encouraging the production of solutions to major-specific problems.
To ensure it has the talent to lead the IT industry in the future, Korea can consider the following three directions.
The most urgent priority is to provide substantive university education. To this end, universities need to establish differentiated goals that consider both student levels and industry needs while raising the percentage of required courses.
Basic courses like mathematics and basic science should be reinforced, while business management, humanities and software capabilities should be included in the major curriculum areas.
The curriculum portfolios should be kept up-to-date to meet the needs of diverse industry types, including IT convergence services, traditional software applications and IT convergence manufacturing.
Going further, universities should expand the number of teaching assistants and augment infrastructure for experimentation and practical training. It is also critically important to modify research-focused evaluation of faculty performance so that professors can concentrate more on teaching.
Second, IT start-ups and university-industry networks should be revitalized.
Universities need to recognize start-ups as one of the key objectives of university IT education, and create IT MBA and other programs to provide the stimulus needed to ensure graduate students can set up their own businesses.
In addition, it is desirable for both companies and universities to regularize academia-industry exchange networks, including industry advisory boards consisting of executives and other staff, while proactively inducing industry participation in Co-op and capstone programs.
Third, a virtuous cycle between tertiary IT education and industry should be formed. By introducing an IT capability certification system ― akin to the TOEIC test for English language proficiency ― preferential treatment can be given to certified persons.
To invigorate internship programs, universities should grant academic credit for internships and companies should help students develop their practical work ability.
Encouraging talented people to enter the IT sector requires an academic and business ecosystem that can foster IT talent cultivation.
Industry needs to provide better treatment for IT talent and a clear vision of future career paths, while government needs to develop policies that put priority on and invest in IT talents.
Lee Sung-ho, Ryu Ji-jung and Kim Jae-won are research fellows at Samsung Economic Research Institute.