KISTEP held the 158th KISTEP Wednesday Forum on May 24 under the theme of 'Shortage of Researchers: Roles and Tasks of Science and Engineering Graduate Schools'.

▲ Opening remarks by Byoung-Ho Son, Vice President of KISTEP

In the opening remarks, Dr. Byoung-Ho Son said, "We are entering an era of significant population decline. There is a shortage of key researchers not only in the qualitative aspect but also in the quantitative aspect. I believe it would be timely and meaningful to explore various policy tasks here today to support graduate schools of science and engineering, which are critical for training R&D human resources. KISTEP will make every effort to reflect the opinions presented today into policies."

▲ Presentation by Seongmin Hong, Director General of Research Center for S&T HR Policy at STEPI

In the presentation, Dr. Seongmin Hong analyzed the current status of population decline in Korea and presented three major strategic objectives for securing key researchers.

He defined two factors that will impact Korean labor market: ▲a decrease in the absolute quantity of the population and ▲an influx of MZ generation to the labor market. "Policies would be useless if these two factors are not fully taken into account."

"Graduate schools should function as research and education systems that promote the qualitative growth of science and engineering talents," he said. "S&T activities need to shift from being research-oriented to people-oriented." In particular, he emphasized the need to systemize career development that has relied on individual students, presenting major strategic objectives and tasks to respond to the crisis of population shortage.

In the panel discussion presided over by Hyun-Hwan Oh (Director General of the Office of S&T Policy Planning, KISTEP), participants including Baekeun Jun (Head of the Office of Policy Support, KSIA), Hyukjin Ko (Professor of the Department of Business Administration, Tech University of Korea) and Seoghyeon Ryu (Director of the Office of Industry-University Cooperation, UST) had an in-depth discussion.

▲ Baekeun Jun, Head of the Office of Policy Support, KSIA

"In order to secure key researchers, it is necessary to improve the treatment of master's and docto.ral students at graduate schools of science and engineering," Mr. Baekeun Jun said. "Also, we need to diversify the ways to receive degrees, such as completion of industry-university collaboration projects other than dissertations. We need to contemplate the role of graduate schools that align with the demands of the industry."

▲ Hyukjin Ko, Professor of the Department of Business Administration, Tech University of Korea

Dr. Hyukjin Ko said, "We should pay attention to the quantity of talents. Preventing brain drain is important, but we should actively encourage the influx of outstanding foreign master's and doctorate degree holders."

▲ Seoghyeon Ryu, Director of the Office of Industry-University Cooperation, UST

"As an alternative to the shortage of domestic S&T researchers, making use of foreign talents is suggested," Dr. Seoghyeon Ryu said. "We need to improve the living conditions of foreign master's and docto.ral students and strengthen the UST education model based on research institutes," he added.