KAIST

KAIST President Shin Sung-chul speaks during a press conference in Seoul, Monday. / Courtesy of KAIST

The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) unveiled its new vision, Monday, designed to help the school emerge as one of the top 10 world-leading universities by 2031.

According to the state-run research institute, the new future plan titled "KAIST Vision 2031" is to become a global value-creative leading university with the arrival of the Fourth Industrial Revolution that will bring a paradigm shift across the board.

To do this, KAIST proposed action plans in the fields of education, research and development (R&D), technology commercialization, globalization and future strategy. It also introduced the new KAIST spirit -- challenge, creativity and caring.

This comes as KAIST stands at a critical juncture as a school that has emerged as a global top-tier university over the past half-century and is now facing growing challenges -- particularly from up-and-coming Chinese rivals that are financially backed by the government.

"KAIST has joined the ranks of world-class universities over the past 50 years, but we also need to re-establish our vision and strategies to find measures to further develop the university," KAIST President Shin Sung-chul said in a press conference in Seoul.

"These are focused on qualitative development rather than quantitative growth."

Last year, KAIST -- established in 1971 -- ranked 41st in the QS World University Rankings, an annual publication of world university rankings by British education company Quacquarelli Symonds. It also ranked in sixth in 2016 and 2017 in Thomson Reuters' annual ranking of the World's Most Innovative Universities.

Shin said the new vision is the outcome of a year-long effort from 140 people ranging from students, school officials and professors as well as outside specialists.

"Since last April, a committee has been in operation under the direct control of the president," he said. Shin took office in March 2017.

Five action plans

The educational innovation will be about selecting talented individuals from various backgrounds and raising convergence leaders who can move across various academic disciplines with confidence and challenging spirits.

"KAIST plans to recruit more students from regular high schools as well as female students," Shin said, adding that it plans to expand their respective portions into 35 percent and 30 percent by 2031.

In addition, 30 percent of the total freshmen in 2031 will be foreign students, compared with the current ratio of 8.4 percent.

To nurture the convergence leaders, KAIST plans to adopt the non-departmental education system in 2019, in which students are not required to choose majors or departments during all four years of their undergraduate studies.

In order to improve R&D, Shin said KAIST will introduce the "Collaborative Research Lab" system to help retain academic success without interruption, and to improve the continuity of research.

"By 2031, KAIST plans to establish more than 60 Collaborative Research Labs," Shin said.

To accelerate convergence studies, the university will carry out eight flagship convergence research centers by 2026.

To commercialize its research, it will separate the technology transfer office as an independent body by 2031, while making efforts to host startups inside the campus in Daejeon.

For globalization, the president plans to create a Korean-English bilingual campus and set up an overseas campus by 2031.

KAIST aims to secure a 1 trillion-won (940 million) budget by 2031, up from 860 billion won allocated for this year, Shin added.

Shin, who previously headed the Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology, is KAIST's first alumni president. Previous presidents came from overseas, including Nobel Laureate Physicist Robert Laughlin.