hankyoreh

KAIST President Suh Nam-pyo enters a room for a press conference. (Yonhap News)

Another student at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) took his own life near his home in Incheon, Thursday. His death marked the fourth KAIST student suicide this year.

A yogurt delivery woman found 19-year-old Park bleeding from his head at the entrance of an apartment building at 1:20 p.m., the police reported. According to the police, Park seemingly took his own life by jumping from the 21st floor of the apartment building, where his sweater and wallet were discovered. Park, a sophomore at the country’s top science university, submitted a diagnosis of depression and obtained a leave of absence from the school Wednesday.

Park’s father reportedly said to the police that his son was recently very disappointed with his poor grades and he heard his son voice worries about KAIST’s punitive tuition system, which assigns differential tuition rates according to a student’s grades.

Park’s death came after three students also took their lives this year, including a 24-year-old senior Jang’s suicide just nine days ago.

KAIST students blamed the School President Suh Nam-pyo’s neo-liberalist education policy, including the punitive tuition system and a ban on re-taking classes if a student has failed. Students say it has driven them to limitless competition and caused this suicide domino effect. Students placed a large hand-written poster and staged a one-person demonstration on the campus in Daejeon.

“If students fail to get good grades, they are labeled as losers,” the poster says. “We have no time to share our worries. We are not happy on this campus.”

Following the news of Park’s suicide, President Suh held an urgent press conference in the evening announcing he would abolish the controversial tuition system starting next semester, saying, “I am really ashamed to face them as the president.”

(Photo by Yonhap News, Stroy by Lim Ji-sun)