The Government’s Plan to Support Human Resources in Science and Engineering Fields

As a way to support human resources in the field of science and engineering, the government has decided to guarantee the legal status of ‘postdoctoral researchers’ and establish labor cost standards so that graduate students can receive wages above a certain percentage when conducting research projects. On the 26th, the government held the ‘2nd Talent Nurturing Strategy Meeting’ presided over by Prime Minister Han Deok-soo at the Seoul Government Complex to discuss plans for supporting human resources in the science and engineering fields. The reason the government has come up with countermeasures is that the concentration of talent in certain fields is intensifying. In particular, there are frequent cases of re-entering another school or major, such as medical school, after entering university. Looking at the number of students who dropped out of science and engineering majors at Seoul National University, Yonsei University, and Korea University by year, the trend is increasing: 723 in 2020, 973 in 2021, and 1,302 last year. The Ministry of Education said, “We plan to expand investment in human resources in science and engineering, considering fostering talent in the high-tech field as an important task to create new growth engines for the future.” The focus of the measures was to improve the treatment of postdoctoral researchers and graduate students in the field of science and engineering. The Ministry of Education decided to guarantee the legal status of researchers by stipulating postdoctoral researchers as university members in the Higher Education Act. In the case of science and engineering postdoctoral researchers, it is estimated that more than 40% of them remain in the supervisor’s laboratory after obtaining a doctorate. However, it has been pointed out that there are not enough university-affiliated research institutes equipped with full-time paid researchers, making it difficult for researchers belonging to university research institutes to continue their research stably. The Ministry of Education plans to guarantee the legal status of postdoctoral researchers and support them by making ground rules. In a phone call with the Ministry of Education, an official from the Ministry of Education said, “Recently, convergence and complex talents are in the spotlight, so there is no guarantee that more results will be achieved even if only the science and engineering field is supported.” This will be the target,” he said. Increased support for science and engineering graduate students. Expand national scholarship support through the introduction of the Presidential Science Scholarship for graduate schools, and improve the system so that graduate students can receive more than a certain percentage of labor costs when conducting research projects. As for specific measures, △set a minimum rate for student labor costs △a certain percentage of group research expenses is paid as student labor expenses △include standards for accounting for student labor costs in university information disclosure. However, since this is a method of paying graduate students a portion of the research funds from the government’s R&D project budget, the benefits are limited to science and engineering majors. In addition, it plans to expand the scale of the support project for young researchers in the field of science and engineering, and to consider support for excellent science and engineering talents in universities within the RISE system. At the meeting, plans to nurture talent in the eco-up (green industry) and energy fields were also discussed. Regarding eco-up, with the goal of fostering 80,000 green talents by 2027, it plans to operate a convergence and complex curriculum between various disciplines, and to operate the ‘Eco-up Innovation Convergence University’, which allows students to take courses without major restrictions, from this year. As a mid- to long-term strategy for cultivating energy professionals, focus on three strategies: fostering 20,000 energy professionals by 2030 △nurturing technical talent tailored to corporate needs △nurturing local talent in connection with the local energy industry △nurturing core human resources with global competitiveness do. To this end, it plans to increase the number of ‘Graduate Schools of Energy Convergence’ from 16 this year to 20 by 2025, and to strengthen the expertise of incumbents by opening training programs in the fields of nuclear power, hydrogen, and efficiency through collaboration with energy associations and organizations. Reporter Park Go-eun euni@hani.co.kr