UST President Kang Daeim: "Formalizing UST's Founding Principles Is the Top Priority"

Top 10% Researchers from Government-funded Institutes Serve as Professors
Training Master's and Doctoral-level Science and Technology Talent

Kang Daeim, president of the University of Science and Technology (UST), stated, "My top priority will be to clarify and formalize UST's founding principles."

At a meeting with reporters from the Ministry of Science and ICT on the 18th, President Kang said, "This will definitely be pursued during the revision of the Act on the Establishment, Operation, and Fostering of Government-funded Science and Technology Research Institutes (the Government-funded Research Institutes Act) in the second half of the year."

Kang Daeim, president of the University of Science and Technology (UST), is answering reporters' questions at a press conference held on the 18th. Photo by UST

UST is the only national research institute-based graduate school in Korea, utilizing 30 government-funded research institutes in the field of science and technology as its schools to train master's and doctoral-level talent. The top 10% of researchers from these institutes serve as UST professors, and students attend classes (and conduct research) at the relevant institutes according to their majors, commuting or residing in dormitories as needed.

Based on the Government-funded Research Institutes Act, which states, "A graduate school university may be established jointly by government-funded research institutes to foster professional research personnel," UST was founded in 2004 and produced its first graduates in 2006. By the first half of 2025, it will have produced approximately 2,800 domestic graduates.

Among them, about 280 have secured full-time positions at 29 government-funded research institutes (about 10.9% of domestic graduates), while others have become full-time faculty at prestigious overseas and domestic universities or serve as chief information officers at cutting-edge technology venture companies. The overall employment rate stands at 93.6% (94.6% for domestic graduates and 91.3% for international graduates). Many international graduates return to their home countries and become university presidents, producing key talent every year.

However, UST is calling for the establishment of a clear legal provision stating that "the University of Science and Technology is established under the Government-funded Research Institutes Act," rather than relying on the vague legal basis that "a graduate school university may be established." Through this, UST aims to change its official name to "National Research Institute Graduate School" and become widely recognized by the public as a talent development institution on par with Korea's four major science and technology institutes, including KAIST.

In fact, UST students are known to have a high level of satisfaction. President Kang said, "Students who graduated from other universities such as KAIST rate UST's lectures even more highly," adding, "There are great advantages in directly participating in all research projects at the institutes as both researchers and students, and actual surveys show that student satisfaction is extremely high."

President Kang's vision is to nurture next-generation research leaders by providing programs that foster creative, convergence, challenge, and collaboration-oriented talent, as well as opportunities to communicate with scientists from around the world.

Born in Jeju, President Kang earned his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from KAIST, served as division head and then president at the Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science, and was inaugurated as the sixth president of UST in February.

He emphasized, "We will foster science and technology leaders with integrated capabilities in both the humanities and STEM fields by promoting student entrepreneurship, training AI experts, strengthening global competencies through participation in international academic activities, expanding student principal investigator experiences throughout the entire research cycle from planning to commercialization, and offering lectures focused on discussion and seminars."