Motivated Korean students and a boom in science in South Korea

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https://ebiozoomhome.wordpress.com/2019/09/26/motivated-korean-students-and-a-boom-in-science-in-south-korea/

BioZoom 

Motivated Korean students and a boom in science in South Korea

Tae-Hwan Kwon, MD, PhD, DMSc

Professor, Department of Biochemistry and cell Biology, School of Medicine, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41944, Korea; Director, BK21 PLUS Program, School of Medicine, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41944, Korea.  [email protected]

A short summary text

Due to the substantial investment to R&D, and a preference to be a researcher as a job, South Korea’s research output has soared significantly. Many young students in Asia are armed with motivation and curiosity in science, and they are already pioneering their future with more enthusiasm and energy than previous generations.

Main Text

 Introduction

The BioZoom Journal kindly asked me to write a short article regarding the differences in performing research between European and Asian countries. Moreover, my personal views were requested on the differences in working conditions for the research between Denmark and South Korea. Although I have studied and worked in both countries for many years (Figure 1), these questions are challenging for me to provide a proper answer, since performing a basic science is fundamentally the same all over the world. Moreover, Asian students, particularly Korean young students, have been taught in the almost same way as European students, e.g., reading and studying English textbooks and papers and making an English presentation. However, I happily accepted an invitation to describe Asian students mainly in terms of differences in culture, compared with European students. Moreover, some unique Korean history in the 20^th century was briefly described, which affected education in Korea. I hope that this short article provides a little help in understanding Asian countries and Asian students who are currently working in your laboratory.  

A unique Korean history in the 20^th century

According to the World Economic Forum (September 2018) and OECD database, South Korea is one of the most educated counties in the world with the highest percentage of university graduates among people aged 25 to 34 (69.8%; OECD average: 44.5%, and Denmark: 46.6%) (1,2). Moreover, the country has invested heavily in education including financial support for pre-school education. More children are enrolled in early years education, i.e., the enrollment of children under the age of 3 in early childhood education in 2016 was 97%, same as Denmark (3). Regardless of income, parents in Korea are very much willing to provide their children with a better education. However, the belief that "education is important and essential" has not been developed in a short period, but it has been placed in Koreans mind over the past several hundred years. Notably, in the early and mid-20^th century, Koreans experienced the deplorable colonial period in the Korean peninsula (1910 -1945) occupied by Japanese militarism and the miserable Korean war between South Korea and North Korea (1950 - 1953) after the World War II. Koreans appreciate Denmark's support during and after the Korean war by sending a hospital ship Jutlandia to provide medical assistance and establishing the National Medical Center in Seoul in 1958. After these historical occasions, my parents' generation, who had to re-establish the destroyed whole nation, had a firm idea that the best investment for the future is education. They struggled with poverty and devoted themselves to economic development and their children's education. They rebuilt many schools and did not hesitate to accept many advanced educational systems from Europe and the United States. Perhaps it was a kind of unrequited love to the future and the next generation. I was born into a generation that has benefited from their efforts, and my age has experienced the time of overcoming it with poverty and turning it into economic abundance. Today, the economy of South Korea is very much grown up and is the 11th largest in the world. And now my children's generation is fully able to enjoy the freedom and to get many chances whatever they want to be. Based on these recent unique historical background and tradition, young students in Korea are well disciplined and have been taught to study hard and to behave diligently and sincerely. Moreover, they are very keen to learn and develop new technology and culture from inside and outside of the country.

Science in Korea

One of the strong points in Asia is that investment in research and development (R&D) is rapidly increasing. In South Korea, it was almost doubled for the last 20 years: 2.3% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 1996 vs. 4.24% of GDP in 2016 (4). One of the differences between South Korea and the UK (or other European countries) is the financial source for the research. In South Korea, more than 70% of R&D investment comes from the business sector, whereas the business sector in the UK funds half (4). The data indicate that the proportions invested in basic research are relatively lower in South Korea. Accordingly, many students prefer to get a job in big companies, like Samsung, LG, SK, and Hyundai, instead of doing basic research in the universities or the research institutes funded by the government. China, Japan, and South Korea have the most researchers in East Asia. In terms of researcher density, South Korea is outstanding, for example, ~ 7 per thousand population in South Korea vs. ~4 per thousand population in the United States (4). Thus, due to the substantial investment to R&D, and a preference to be a researcher as a job, South Korea’s research output had increased to ~65,000 research articles in the Scopus database at 2017 (article output: almost 3.5% of the world) (4). By comparison, Japan published 89,000 articles (4). Moreover, South Korea ranked the fourth in the world for the number of the patent application filed under the PCT, after the United States, Japan, and Germany (at 2016, Korea: 14,867.6 vs. Denmark: 1,304.1) (5).

But there are still some critical issues in science that need to be solved in Korea. For instance, the average scholarly impact of their publications is still around the world mean, which is lower than that of Hong Kong and Singapore in Asia. According to the Scimago Journal & Country Rank (6), the citations per document published during 1996 – 2018 are only 12.95 (Denmark: 25.73; United States: 24.66). The citations per document, however, were gradually increased, which have been higher than that of Japan since 2009 (6). Moreover, bottom-up basic research is largely underfunded, and start-up grants to young researchers are insufficient and should be expanded (7). The research infrastructure in universities and International collaborations are the weak points (7). These issues in science have been discussed, which makes the Korean government launches the BK21 FOUR project, a new program to support graduate students and post-docs from next year. We expect that this project will improve research administrations in the university and give more financial support to young researchers. Many universities in Korea are now emphasizing on the quality of the papers and encouraging international collaborations more actively. Thus, we are expecting many chances to build up new exchange programs for students and researchers between Korea and European countries.

Asian students

Because of cultural differences between the East and the West, Asian students who come to Europe are often inadvertently misunderstood. Asians have long been influenced by Chinese philosophy (Confucian ideas) and lifestyle, and Korea was no exception. Some ideas that have dominated Korean life for a long time are to honor older people and follow them. Traditionally, students have learned not to disobey their parents and teachers. For this reason, Asian students tend to be reluctant to express their opinions, even if they have different views from professors and senior researchers. In this case, you need to encourage them to speak more freely, and then sometimes you will be surprised by their brilliant ideas. Students have also learned that they should endure their difficulties. Therefore, sometimes they cannot refuse it, even if it is left out of their capacity. In this occasion, it is necessary to ask the students often if they have any difficulties. Linguistic problems often arise. In particular, Asian students who speak Korean, Chinese, and Japanese as their mother tongue have difficulties in communicating and writing in English. This problem is because they use characters and languages ​​that are entirely different from Roman characters. Thus, it is important to encourage them and give them opportunities to talk about their experimental results and daily lives in English.

Asian students, however, are armed with as much motivation and curiosity in science as Western students have, together with the full capacity to design, perform, and accomplish experimental research. I am confident that they have dreams and make great efforts to make their dreams come true. Since Korea has a country with a big generational gap, my image of the young generation may be out of date. They know where they are and seldom give up to accomplish their dreams. Recently, I watched a music video of BTS, a world-famous Korean band group. Like their message of hope, I believe that young people are already pioneering their future with more enthusiasm and energy than previous generations. We are always rooting for young students and sincerely hope that everyone has a great future ahead.

Figure legends

Fig 1. a) School of Medicine, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, South Korea; b) Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.

References

1. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD); available at https://data.oecd.org/eduatt/population-with-tertiary-education.htm
2. World Economic Forum; available at https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/10/9-charts-that-show-the-state-of-education-around-the-world/
3. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD); available at https://data.oecd.org/students/enrolment-rate-in-early-childhood-education.htm
4. van Noorden R. Five in Asia. Nature 558; 500-551. 2018.
5. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Patents Database (OECD, 2016); available at https://stats.oecd.org
6. Scimago Journal & Country Rank; available at https://www.scimagojr.com/countryrank.php
7. Yeom HW. South Korean science needs restructuring. Nature 558; 511-513, 2018.

 

  

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https://ebiozoomhome.wordpress.com/2019/09/26/motivated-korean-students-and-a-boom-in-science-in-south-korea/