Besieged KAIST dean agrees to scrap punitive tuition system

By Kim Eun-jung

SEOUL, April 12 (Yonhap) -- Rattled by a string of student suicides, the president of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), South Korea's top technology college, said Tuesday that the school will abolish a punitive tuition program depriving underperforming students of tuition-free status.

Four students have taken their own lives since January in cases blamed on the competitive system introduced by president Suh Nam-pyo that charges students tuition if their grade point average dips below 3.0 on a 4.0 scale.

The further their grades fall, the more tuition the students have to pay up to the ceiling amount of 6 million (US$5,500)

"Regardless of the reasons, I deeply apologize to people for the tragedy, as a university president who is in charge of student safety," Suh said at a parliamentary meeting. "Although I think academic affairs have been managed well so far in general, (I) will correct practices that need to be fixed."

Suh, 65, a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, took office in 2006 and initiated competitive programs, requiring professors to pass tougher tenure rules and provide all lectures in English.

Prior to Suh, KAIST brought in Nobel Prize-winning American physicist Robert Laughlin as president in 2004 to make the university more competitive internationally. However, Laughlin's reform move clashed with Korean culture, angering professors and students, and his two-year contract ended in 2005.

KAIST's tuition currently costs about $5,500 and is paid by the government. Among some 8,000 students, approximately 1,000 are now paying a portion of their tuition because of the grade policy.

When asked whether he would step down to take responsibility for the tragedy, Suh said "not now," but vowed to improve the current system based on feedback from students and faculty. He said the school plans to strengthen student counseling programs and provide alternatives for English-only lectures for some subjects.

South Korea holds the highest suicide rate among the member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, with 24.3 people out of every 100,000 having taken their own lives in 2008, the latest figure available.

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