Pohang University of Science and Technology
San 31, Hyoja Dong Nam-gu,
Pohang 790-784
SOUTH KOREA
PHONE: 82-562-279-2005
FAX: 82-562-279-2020
www.postech.ac.kr

THE BOTTOM LINE

When you're already one of the best schools in Asia, what do you do for an encore? Push to be one of the best in the world, of course. That's the goal of Chung Sung Kee, the president of Pos tech, who has the likes of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) of the U.S. firmly in his sights.

Being the best means attracting the best. Thirteen-year-old Postech not only enrolls the cream of Korean students, its ambition and state-of-the-art facilities are also causing a reverse brain drain among professors. Many of the faculty's teachers , Chung included, gave up successful careers in the U.S. - some were even naturalized citizens - to live and work in the steel gray city of Pohang, 400 km southeast of Seoul. "I returned because I owed something to my family and my country," says Chung. H e and his peers certainly did not come back for the 40%-60% pay cut.

Not surprisingly, globalization is the buzzword at Postech. "We must function within global education circles," says Chung. With fewer research grants being awarded at home, Postech has been forced to look abroad - and has gleaned worldwide recogn ition for its work in the process. The next step, says Chung, is to transform Postech into an English-speaking campus.

Postech is facing a distraction from its quest to be No. 1. The government wants to boost the yearly intake of freshmen. As the university has a policy of students living on campus, more undergrads means more housing. "If we take more students, th en I will be in the housing business - which I don't want to be in," says Chung.

Postech spends 40% of its $95 milion budget on research. It is very productive in terms of papers cited or presented, "but we are still behind the global leaders," laments the ambitious Chung. To address that, Postech is nurturing synergy between research, teaching and business. Partnerships with corporations such as LG, Hewlett Packard and the private university's main benefactor, Pohang Steel and Iron Co. are paying dividends. Meanwhile, Postech is using a $16 million in-house venture capital fu nd to develop business successes of its own.

- Reported by Laxmi Nakarmi