STEM professors take helm of Korean universities in AI era

A scholar evaluations recruitment supplies at a science and engineering job truthful at Seoul Nationwide College in Gwanak District, Seoul, March 3. Yonhap

A rising variety of professors with backgrounds in science, know-how, engineering and arithmetic (STEM) are being appointed as college presidents, demonstrating a speedy shift within the management panorama that underscores a broader refocusing of institutional priorities towards analysis and superior know-how.

As the federal government ramps up assist for industry-academia collaboration and pushes to broaden the superior tech workforce, even universities lengthy identified for his or her strengths within the humanities are pivoting to broaden their give attention to pure sciences and engineering.

Amongst establishments ranked within the high 30 of The Korea Occasions Okay-universities World Excellence Rankings 2026, 19 establishments — a transparent majority — are led by presidents with backgrounds in pure sciences or engineering.

Hanyang College’s ERICA campus, ranked nineteenth, was excluded because it shares the identical president as the principle campus. To account for 30 distinct college leaders, the evaluation was prolonged to incorporate the Thirty first-ranked establishment.

The pattern reveals a pointy reversal from a decade in the past. In 2016, 17 of the 30 presidents, or 56.7 %, got here from humanities and social sciences. This yr, nevertheless, these with STEM backgrounds account for 63.3 %.

The shift is much more pronounced on the high. Among the many high 10 universities, the variety of presidents with science and engineering backgrounds has risen from simply two a decade in the past to 5 this yr, greater than doubling over the interval.

Notably, 4 universities — Kyung Hee College, Ewha Womans College, Chung-Ang College and Hankuk College of International Research (HUFS) — have, for the primary time of their historical past, appointed presidents with STEM backgrounds.

Universities’ rising choice for presidents with STEM backgrounds is extensively attributed to a shift in authorities funding and analysis techniques that prioritize analysis output and industry-academia collaboration.

The Ministry of Training’s main funding packages, together with Leaders in INdustry-university Cooperation and Mind Korea 21, have shifted towards boosting analysis capability and {industry} ties, driving demand for management aligned with these priorities.

At HUFS — lengthy acknowledged for its power in international language schooling — the brand new president is shifting rapidly to drive the enlargement of science and engineering.

Inside a month of taking workplace in March, HUFS President Kang Kee-hoon signed a memorandum of understanding with Naver Cloud to construct a sensible campus and struck a separate settlement with LG CNS to broaden industry-academia cooperation, together with contract-based teaching programs to coach college students in synthetic intelligence.

“There’s rising expectation throughout the college that, given his background, Kang can each protect its identification and reply extra swiftly to the calls for of a quickly altering period,” a college official stated.

An identical shift is obvious at Ewha Womans College, lengthy identified for its power within the humanities.

In an interview with The Korea Occasions in August final yr, Ewha President Lee Hyang-sook stated a rising consensus had emerged relating to the necessity to strengthen competitiveness in science and engineering in response to altering occasions.

“Being elected as president displays expectations that I’ll take a extra scientific method and broaden alternatives in science and engineering,” stated Lee, who was a arithmetic professor.

World rating techniques have additionally fueled the rise in presidents with STEM backgrounds. QS assigns about 50 % of the scores in its World College Rankings to analysis indicators, whereas the Occasions Larger Training rankings give 59 % weight to analysis, together with its atmosphere and high quality.

Chung-Ang College, which appointed its first president with a STEM background in March, stated the transfer displays the establishment’s push to heart science and technology-driven management.

“The choice was aimed toward constructing an ecosystem the place schooling, analysis and {industry} collaboration are carefully built-in, and demonstrating tangible outcomes and efficiency,” a college official stated.

Authorities coverage has strengthened the shift. As Seoul pushes to domesticate extra employees within the semiconductors and biotechnology fields, universities are increasing associated packages, with extra science and engineering college shifting into key administrative roles past their presidential workplaces.