Ph.D. drought at firms is bemoaned in study

Four of five research institutes at private companies do not have research fellows with Ph.D. degrees, according to a report by the Korea Industrial Technology Association yesterday. The agency studied the composition of researchers in private research centers in 2002, and said that as of the end of the year, 78 percent of the 9,705 research institutes operated by companies in Korea lack staff with the highest academic degrees. Among research centers of small and medium firms, 82 percent did not have staffers with Ph.D. degrees, and among those operated by large corporations, 41 percent had no Ph.D. degree holders. Of the total researchers working for institutes of private companies, only 5 percent held Ph. D. degrees. “The study shows the reality where the research activities by private firms center around commercializing products, hiring a young and cheap workforce, and overlooking basic technology that require Ph. D. holders with deeper knowledge,” an official at the agency said. Monami, an office supply maker, and BYC, a underwear company, did not have one staff member with a Ph.D. degree. Neither GM Daewoo Motor nor Oriental Brewery had doctorate-holders among their research force. The agency said that overseas-based companies often do core research and development at the research institutes in their headquarters and confine the roles of researchers in Korea to localization work. Some Ph.D. holders leave research institutes run by private firms and opt for colleges despite the lower salaries in academia. A professor at Seoul National University, 41, who did not want to be identified, said he earns less at the university than his pay at one of the leading private research institutes in Korea where he had worked for 10 years. “ Companies do not welcome long-term research even though there is a chance for big profits,” the professor said. That partly explains why most of the talent in science and technology in Korea can be found concentrated in colleges. According to the Ministry of Science and Technology, 73 percent of Ph. D. holders in science and engineering in Korea work at colleges, and only 15 percent work for private firms, compared to the United States where 35 percent of Ph.D. holders are employed by private firms. “The small number of companies that have a quality research force will be globally competitive, and the Korean economy’s dependence on them will go up,” said Cho Hwang-hui, a researcher with a Ph. D. at the Science and Technology Policy Institute. by Kwon Hyuk-joo