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1. Status Quo

Quality and excellence in research
During the past ten years, South Korea has consistently made quantitative progress in research by implementing various government projects (e.g., Brain Korea 21 and NURI) for colleges and universities. For example, according to the Science Citation and Index report published by Thomson Reuters, the number of Korean papers published in the area of science and technology dramatically increased from 9,444 in 1998 to 23,515 in 2005. In terms of world rankings, South Korea jumped from 18th in 1998 to 12th in 2005.
On the other hand, with regard to measuring the level of research quality, the position of South Korea is currently far from world-class as evidenced by South Korea ranking 28th in citations per paper from 2002 through 2006. In today’s knowledge-based society, research performance of high quality is pivotal to national growth and competitiveness. With this in mind, South Korea needs to develop a new strategy for promoting creative and high quality research.

   

Competitiveness of institutions of higher education
Today, university leaders as well as policy makers in higher education refer to ‘international rankings of universities’ as comparative performance criteria for academic institutions. According to Time’s Higher Education Supplement in 2007, there are only two universities from South Korea within the top 200 in the world. Analysis of the international ranking criteria shows that extremely low percentages of foreign faculty members and foreign students are the main shortcomings of major universities in South Korea.
To improve their international rankings, Korean universities should endeavor to recruit more foreign faculty members and foreign students. At the governmental level, a new funding policy in higher education is also required to strengthen the globalization of academic institutions and global networks in research.
   

Increase of brain drain
Deteriorating research conditions in colleges and universities have brought about a drain of young Korean brains. Specifically, the preference of under-graduates to go on to graduate schools in the United States is increasing along with the number of Korean graduates settling down in America.
Today, retaining star faculty members and young brains with a high potential in research and development is pivotal to the competitiveness of Korea’s academic institutions. Regardless of their nationality, gender or age, prominent scholars are being recruited by every institution and every country. The recruitment of foreign scholars has become a global trend.

As a key strategy towards obtaining a competitive edge in higher education as well as improving the national economy, the South Korean government needs to create a national project to reverse Korea’s brain-drain phenomena and begin attracting prominent researchers and scholars to Korea.