Training Employees as Master's and Doctoral-Level Professionals
Faculty Organized as a Convergence System Bridging Industry and Academia
Focusing on Producing Talent Contributing to Both Industry and Academia
On March 4, the "LG AI Graduate School," the first in-house graduate school in Korea established to foster artificial intelligence (AI) talent, held its opening ceremony and began operating master's and doctoral degree programs.
This in-house graduate school, established by the LG Management Development Institute AI Research Center, is the first of its kind in Korea to be approved by the Ministry of Education pursuant to Article 4 of the "Special Act on Talent Innovation for Advanced Industries." It will operate as a lifelong educational institution designed to train company employees as master's and doctoral-level professionals.
Article 4 of the Special Act is a temporary provision valid until January 16 next year. The Ministry of Education plans to revise the "Lifelong Education Act" and its subordinate regulations within this year to provide a legal basis for the establishment and operation of in-house graduate schools, thereby ensuring the continuity of the system.
The opening ceremony, held in Magok-dong, Seoul, was attended by Lee Haesook, Director General of the Higher Lifelong Policy Bureau at the Ministry of Education, and Park Dongil, Director General of Industrial Policy at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. They offered congratulations and encouragement to the faculty and new students of the LG AI Graduate School.
The LG AI Graduate School is the first in-house graduate school to be established with the Ministry of Education's approval since the system was implemented in January last year. It offers master's degree programs in AI (with 25 available spots) and doctoral programs (with 5 available spots).
With the educational vision of "nurturing the best AI talent equipped with both domain knowledge and AI capabilities," the school has set the following goals: to cultivate AI professionals with practical skills closely aligned with industry needs, to foster AI research leaders who will drive global technological innovation, and to develop talent that bridges AI research and commercialization.
The faculty is organized as a convergence system encompassing both industry and academia. Full-time professors consist of experts from leading domestic and international research institutions in the AI field, as well as promising researchers with hands-on industry experience. Adjunct professors, mainly comprised of employees from the LG Management Development Institute AI Research Center, are responsible for practice-oriented courses and supervising research projects.
The master's degree program is operated as a one-year (three-semester) curriculum focused on training practical talent with problem-solving skills. The doctoral program aims to foster research leaders capable of redefining complex problems in the industrial field and developing original methodologies to solve them. This program runs as a dispatch course for more than three years.
In particular, graduation requirements for the doctoral program include publishing at least one paper in an SCI(E)-level journal or presenting at a world-class academic conference. The focus is on producing talent that can contribute to both industry and academia.
At the opening ceremony, Lee Haesook, Director General of the Higher Lifelong Policy Bureau at the Ministry of Education, stated, "I hope that the launch of the LG AI Graduate School will serve as a successful precedent for fostering high-level talent in advanced fields equipped with both theoretical and practical skills. We plan to actively cooperate with companies, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, and others to promote industry-academia cooperation, including faculty exchanges and joint research between universities and businesses."
Park Dongil, Director General of Industrial Policy at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, said, "As the AI transformation of industries such as manufacturing is now a necessity rather than a choice, I expect the LG AI Graduate School to play a pivotal role in cultivating key talent to lead the AI transformation of advanced industries."
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