Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
373-1 Kusong-dong,
Yusong-gu, Taejon 305-701
SOUTH KOREA
PHONE: 82-42-869-2114 / 5114
FAX: 82-42-869-2210 / 2220
www.kaist.ac.kr

THE BOTTOM LINE

When a TV crew recently visited the sprawling campus of KAIST, they were greeted by dozens of red, yellow and white banners. While the filmmakers were immortalizing the institute's past for Sunday primetime, KAIST was dealing with the present. The banners voiced opposition to administrative reforms being imposed on the school by the government.

It is fitting that in IMF-era Korea, KAIST is having to restructure. For 28 years the school helped power Korea Inc., sending some 20,000 scientists and engineers into the eager embrace of the country's fast-growing industries. Many of the enginee rs that made Samsung into the world's largest memory chip maker were graduates.

The government moved KAIST from Seoul to the Daeduck science town, near central Taejon city, in 1988 to give it better access to research facilities. Research remains the institute's top priority. KAIST's 2,475 undergraduates are outnumbered by th e 4,178 graduates working on the latest advances. Successes include a biomedical breakthrough in leukemia treatment with a world market value of $1.4 billion a year.

KAIST is prospering despite the Crisis and the reforms, which require a 10% saving in administrative costs. The institute has an annual budget of $130 million, supplemented by $55 million in research grants. "I have seen an increase in research gr ants from both government and the private sector," says Choi Duck In, the institute's president.

A move toward English language teaching is being followed by an overseas recruitment drive. Choi plans to enroll more foreign students and wants overseas teachers to bolster his 360-strong faculty. Eventually Choi wants his foreign contingent to m ake up 20% of the faculty. And those internal reforms? "Nothing to worry about," insists Choi. Today KAIST, like Korea, is confidently turning its gaze outward.

- Reported by Laxmi Nakarmi