Korea"s five science and technology universities
unveils a new innovative model of cooperation
Korea"s five science and technology universities unveiled a new innovative model of cooperation in the areas of education, entrepreneurship, and cooperation between industry and academia. The conference was held on June 1, 2016, at the Seoul Lotte Hotel and included the participation of GIST (President Seung Hyeon Moon), KAIST (President Sung-mo Kang), DGIST (President Sung-chul Shin), UNIST (President Moo-young Jung), and POSTECH (President Do-youn Kim).
The new model of cooperation is meant to foster synergy by removing institutional barriers between the universities by sharing human resources and specialized programs to promote student skills, encourage entrepreneurship, and increase industry-academia collaborations.
The participating universities will cooperate to commercialize excellent research results, and each university’s entrepreneurship funds will continue to invest in promising new startups while significantly increasing support for mentors. Starting from next year, they will also expand the competition for new business startups from once a year to twice a year. Selected startup teams can choose a domestic or international entrepreneurship training program run by any of the five universities. In other words, a startup team from GIST can participate in UNIST’s entrepreneurship program.
To help students prepare startups, the participating universities will also seek the cooperation of mentors from alumni, investors, and experts from the Creative Economy Innovation Center. They will also start a network program between industry and academia, which is crucial for novice entrepreneurs.
The participating universities will also prepare joint courses that any of their students can take in person or online. Most joint classes will be available online with 1 or 2 lectures from professors of other university or by video conferencing if needed. Initially, two courses will be offered from second semester of this year and will expand to 11 courses by the year 2018.
The participating universities will develop a special online lecture content called ‘MOOC’ which will also be open to the public. GIST will develop courses in the areas of climate change, future energy, and culture technology.
GIST President Seung Hyeon Moon said, “Science and technology universities like GIST will lead Korea into a new era of education and innovation by breaking down the walls between universities. We expect that cooperation and communication among Korea"s specialized science and technology universities will greatly contribute to cultivating excellent talents as well as the development of a creative economy.”