South Korea is experiencing a science and technology crisis, with talented people leaving the country for other fields due to job insecurity and low incomes. Solutions such as scholarships and exemptions from military service have had some effect, but to solve the problem, Korea needs to secure job security for science and engineering graduates, control the supply of graduates, and improve their career attractiveness by focusing on research funding.
South Korea is currently experiencing a crisis in science and technology. Korean newspapers and broadcasters report that students are shunning science and technology universities. Universities complain that there is a shortage of talented people in science and engineering because the best and brightest are leaving the field. Industries are struggling to find talented workers when they need them. Society calls it the science and technology crisis. Some argue that this crisis is exaggerated, that enough students are entering the field, that it’s relatively easy to get a job, and that some of these jobs are high-paying. So why is the STEM crisis being talked about everywhere? It’s because the focus of the STEM crisis isn’t just on a lack of numbers, but on a brain drain of top talent. In fact, it’s not just the sciences that are struggling in the current economic climate. Outside of medical and law schools, few fields are doing well. However, science and engineering is singled out because of the high proportion of science and engineering students in universities and the impact it has on society and the economy. Before discussing the solution to the science and technology crisis, let’s look at the background of the crisis along with economic trends.
As of 2024, South Korea’s economy is considered to be at the worst possible level. After the IMF in 1997, the Korean economy rebounded, but it had to overcome several obstacles. Since the IMF, there have been many internal and external challenges, including the credit card crisis (2003), the bursting of the dot-com bubble (1999), and the global financial crisis (2007) triggered by the subprime mortgage crisis. As an export-oriented economy, Korea’s growth is sensitive to global economic conditions, and the current difficult global economic situation is a long tunnel that may never end. S&P and Moody’s have upgraded Korea’s credit rating, saying that the Korean economy has managed the crisis better than its OECD peers amid the European economic crisis, declining U.S. consumption, and concerns about a slowdown in China’s economy. However, the individual suffering is still great. The “healing” books that are sweeping bookstores are a testament to this. Companies are moving into emergency management to prepare for an uncertain economic future, and there are reports of layoffs everywhere. Researchers, who make up a large proportion of the workforce, are being targeted for cuts.
When the economy is in recession, the first people in the industry to lose their jobs are those who work in research and development, or STEM. This job insecurity has been learned by society as a whole, and younger generations are naturally dissuaded from the sciences because they have seen their peers lose their jobs in every economic crisis. High-performing students are drawn to these majors in favor of more stable professions such as doctors and lawyers. This phenomenon is evident in university entrance exams, especially at Seoul National University, where the SAT scores of science and engineering applicants are lower than the average for medical applicants. Even the top students who enter science and engineering often go on to graduate school for medicine or law, or study abroad. As a result, very few top talents remain in the field.
To address this crisis, governments, companies, and universities are proposing several measures. First, there are scholarship programs that provide scholarship benefits to science and engineering students to reduce the burden of tuition costs and discourage them from choosing other majors. A typical example is the Korea Scholarship Foundation’s Science and Engineering Scholarship, which provides a full tuition waiver for entering students who maintain a certain grade point average. However, even with these scholarships, the best students are still leaving the field for medicine and law. This means that scholarships alone cannot solve the science and engineering crisis.
Next, there is the military service exemption program. This program exempts students from military service if they work as professional researchers at domestic science and technology universities or related companies, and aims to encourage male students to enter science and technology and prevent them from studying abroad. Thanks to this system, many students have been able to pursue master’s and doctoral programs without military service, but many still choose to study abroad even though they are required to perform military service.
In addition, an engineering certification program has been proposed. This is a certification program run by the Korea Accreditation Agency for Engineering Education, which aims to increase the social value of graduates by granting engineering certificates to engineering graduates who meet certain requirements. However, the effectiveness of this program is low because society and industry do not recognize the value of engineering certification. In addition, various measures have been proposed to support research, improve the research environment and treatment, reduce unnecessary regulations, and systematically manage science and technology personnel.
These measures are being implemented, but they do not address the core of the crisis. This is because they do not address the core of the crisis, which is job insecurity. To solve the STEM crisis, talented students need to be able to see success and a stable future in STEM. Currently, students are attracted to medical and law schools not because of tuition or military exemptions, but because of the promise of a stable life afterward.
The key to the solution lies in controlling the supply of science and engineering talent. Given the excessive supply of science and engineering graduates compared to the demand from Korean industry, and the low wage levels, it is necessary to reduce the supply and increase the wage. Doctors and lawyers do not have a set retirement age, while professors retire between 60 and 70 years old. However, science and technology workers in private companies have a shorter job life. Due to the short cycle of technological change, science and technology graduates are more likely to lose their jobs at a young age if they fail to develop themselves. Doctors and lawyers, on the other hand, have longer career longevity and can remain economically active for longer. For this reason, science and technology workers need to be able to earn more during shorter periods of economic activity, which means reducing the number of science and technology seats in universities.
Some critics argue that such supply adjustments are difficult to realize in practice. This is because universities need consistent policies and support from the government to reduce the number of seats, and universities themselves rely on tuition fees. In particular, industry is likely to oppose a reduction in the supply of science and technology personnel, which could lead to increased costs, such as higher research and product development costs. However, adjusting the supply of science and technology workers is a necessary measure to restore the lives of science and technology workers who were sacrificed during Korea’s economic development and to establish a sustainable economic development model.
Another realistic alternative would be to centralize research funding. The current method of decentralizing research funding should be discontinued, and a small number of promising and value-creating research institutions and talents should be fully supported to promote the quality of research. This will ensure that research personnel can continue to perform with a satisfactory standard of living and research environment, and society will recognize the value of the lives of those working in technology R&D.
In short, to solve the science and technology crisis, the quality of life and income of science and technology graduates must be improved.
