러플린 총장이 KAIST 학부모들에게 보낸 편지

집에 와 있더군..

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Press Statement
February 1, 2005

It's a pleasure and honor for me to be speaking here today at the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Ministry officials and I thought it would be a good idea to meet with you together in order to clear up some misconceptions about our planning process for KAIST. I meet emphasize the word "process" here because many of the key issues are in flux at the moment and are not official policy of either the Ministry or me.

I anticipate that we might be ready for policy announcements in early March 2005.

I will confirm, however, that we are discussing fairly major issues at KAIST, such as its core funding basis and whether its mission should be modified. Here are the key points of our conversations.

1. PRIVATIZATION: Privatization of KAIST is not on the table. We are discussing only securing "good money" for the advancement of the KAIST as a world-class institution in various ways.

2. GRADUATE EMPHASIS: We are NOT discussing changing KAIST to an undergraduate college. No changes to the graduate programs are contemplated. We are also improving the undergraduate programs.

3. TECHNOLOGICAL EMPHASIS: We are NOT discussing turning KAIST into a general purpose university. We are discussing small modifications to its curriculum - particularly at the undergraduate level - to increase its desirability to parents.

4. PRE-MED and PRE-LAW : We are NOT discussing adding new pre-med and pre-law departments. We are discussing repackaging the curriculum for pre-med. As for the pre-law, we are considering just offering two or three courses in laws related to science and technology. The objective is to "capture" a population of students now choosing prematurely to study these subjects - even though some of them would be happier as professional engineers.

5. GLOBALIZATION: We are considering supplementing the curriculum to make student more globally competitive. This includes increased emphasis on language skills, core exposure to business economics, and improved access to study abroad. We are NOT planning to abandon KAIST's mission to train engineers, but rather to engance this mission.

In summary, the issue we are discussing is moving the business model of KAIST toward the one used by MIT - not changing KAIST's character. I have reasons for thinking this is necessary, but I think these reasons are best left to the question and answer session.

Thank you for your patience.