POSTECH Outshining Foreign Universities
By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter
Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) is striving to defeat the academic disparagement of domestic diplomas. Baik Sung-gi, 58, POSTECH's president is convinced that the superiority of his school can put an end to the trend of many Korean students blindly going to overseas universities.
``I believe that the time when studying overseas without any career development plan guaranteed a rosy future is over. POSTECH has kept its promise to students and parents since its foundation in 1986 that it will provide the most advanced education environment so that they don't need to go overseas,'' Baik said.
Mentioning a number of its alumni who are working at top class universities, the president noted the school's degrees are already recognized internationally. He mentioned ``propelling power'' and ``maneuverability'' of the school on top of ``homogeneity'' of professors' education philosophy as critical factors behind its success.
Also, the president boasts of stable financial support from Korea's largest steel maker, POSCO. POSTECH is a small research-oriented school aimed at boosting the nation's power in science and technology. The school accepts only 300 new students each year and of whom stay in dormitories at the school under a scholarship.
Pohang Accelerator Laboratory at POSTECH, Pohang City in North Gyeongsang Province / Courtesy of POSTECH
For their further development, Baik suggested that Korean universities diversify their income sources and not depend on tuition fees alone. Also, he pointed out strict government control as influencing the competitiveness of Korean universities.
Globalization is also a key word for the science school. To pursue this, POSTECH has set up an internationalization committee and pursues systematic projects in cooperation with overseas research institutes inviting more foreign professors. It will also increase the number of lectures that are conducted in English from the current 50 percent to 100 percent by 2010 as well as the percentage of foreign students from three percent to 10 percent.
``I will introduce students to specific education programs and make headway in halting the decrease in the number of students studying science and engineering. Also I will focus on improving the quality of professors at our school,'' Baik said.
In addition, Baik plans to reorganize the school's departments into four sections _ information-technology (IT), biotechnology (BT), nano- technology (NT) and engineering-technology (ET).
Regarding recruitment of high school students, Baik asked the government to allow universities to evaluate students according to which high schools they are from. Currently, the Korean government bans universities from differentiating between high schools. For example, a top student of an excellent high school is equivalent to his counterparts from lower quality schools under the current college admission system.
Lastly, the president revealed his plan to invite more female students to the school. ``If you look at the academic achievement at our school, scores of female students are slightly higher than those of their male counterparts and female students often graduate at the top of their year,'' Baik said.
``The ratio of enrolled female students every year remains 20 percent but I will increase the percentage by encouraging female students to participate in science camps organized by our school,'' he added.
Graduating from Seoul National University, Baik gained a Ph.D. in Materials Science from Cornell University in 1981. Starting as an associate professor at POSTECH from 1986, he served as vice president in 1998 and became the fifth president of the school last August.