hankyoreh

gazes at the ceiling as he sits in a hospital funeral room in Incheon

By Lee Moon-young

Hovering over the series of KAIST student suicides this year is the shadow of an “unlimited competition” society fully pushed by the university’s president, Suh Nam-pyo. For the last several years, Suh’s name has stood as a symbol of a society defined by its focus on competition for survival, efficiency, speed, and performance.

Throughout the period since Suh took office as KAIST’s president in 2006, there have been charges that academic enthusiasm has disappeared from the institution, leaving only “a race for survival.” Suh has pushed ahead with his own philosophy of “survival of the fittest” education. Representative of his policies are a differential tuition system charging different course fees according to grades, 100 percent English-language lectures, and the decision to eliminate fifteen professors in a retirement age guarantee review.

In Suh’s aggressive actions, observers see signs of a “competition-centered thinking system” picked up in the United States. Suh lived in the country for 51 years after emigrating there during his second year of high school in 1954, and analysts say he adopted as his conviction the American style of individualism and the efficiency of competitive systems.

During a press interview on Jan. 29 just after the first student suicide this year on Jan. 8, Suh went so far as to say, “Who isn’t living under pressure in this world?. . . .Will it solve anything [with the suicide] if we get rid of the differential tuition system?”

Two days before the fourth student suicide, Suh posted a message on the school's home page reading, “As a first-class university that is home to many outstanding students, there have continually been student suicides ever since the school’s establishment... Most of all, there is no such thing as a free lunch... You need to be prepared to accept failures and setbacks today for the sake of success tomorrow.”

“Because Suh has focused on expansion since taking office at KAIST, talking about how he would increase the scope of students to be like the California Institute of Technology, he has created a situation where students can no longer cover their academic expenses with financial aid,” said ruling Grand National Party (GNP) Lawmaker Park Young-ah during a telephone interview with the Hankyoreh. “When the people of South Korea spent their tax money on developing KAIST, it was to foster scientific talents for the sake of the country, but Suh has focused only on outward appearances.”

Gyeongsang National University Professor Jeong Jin-sang said, “In the broad scheme of things, taking away students’ academic autonomy by linking even the amount of tuition they pay to their grades is an act of annihilation against the whole of academic development.”

The Suh Nam-pyo conviction is not the only element of what Suh Nam-pyo has come to symbolize. Observers say his method of running the university is a by-product of the dominant “winner takes all” ideology of South Korean society as a whole. Up until the rash of suicides began, the general trend was one of admiration for Suh’s “accomplishments.” The Chosun Ilbo was the most active proselytizer of the "Suh Nam-pyo brand of reforms," printing a number of articles such as "Suh Nam-pyo Gives KAIST a New Face" in its edition of Sept. 19, 2006. When a furor erupted last year over his reappointment, the Dong-A Ilbo defended him in a June 26 editorial, saying that he had "brought reform to the iron rice bowl of university society."

Sangji University Professor Park Geo-yong said, “Not only Suh’s misguided convictions but the ambitions of the press and Korean society as a whole have tangled into a single skein that is driving students to the point of no return.”

"Nonacceptance of [punitive tuition rates] has been a problem from the begin. Why should we pay for students who don't study with tax money from the people of South Korea?. . . The goal is to reduce the number of students on the bottom rung. It is true that other students feel the pressure. We're telling them to accept the pressure. Who isn't living under pressure in this world?" (Chosun Ilbo interview, Jan. 29, 2011)

"Will it solve anything [with the student suicide] if we get rid of the [punitive tuition rate system]?. . . . [Student studies] happen at every university. That's why we've set up a clinic [within the school] and brought in a psychiatrist." (〃)

“Ordinary people work 40 hours a week on average in South Korea. Under these circumstances, professors should be researching and working at least 60 to 80 hours a week [more than 10 hours a day] if we are to create a world-class university.” (Chosun Ilbo interview, Sept. 30, 2007)

“With a research university like KAIST that is specialized in the area of science of technology, the language barrier can cause great damage... There were objections from students in the early stages of the English courses [in 2006], but today most of them understand the goal and are actually accepting it readily.” (statement at 4th Future Management Concert organized by World Futures Forum on Oct. 16, 2009)

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]