No future without scientists

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No future without scientists

Published: 26 Aug. 2024, 19:58

Yang Hyung-jin
The author is an honorary professor of education at Korea University.

China’s high-tech capabilities are overtaking those of the United States, according to a report from the JoongAng Ilbo’s front page on July 8. The scientific journal Nature assesses research capabilities by analyzing the contribution of research papers published in top-tier journals. According to the Nature Index which tracks where papers are published, China surpassed the United States for the first time in 2024.

Except for Harvard University, which had the highest ranking, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, ranked at No. 10, all of the top 10 universities were Chinese institutions. While this may come as a surprise to the general public, those who have worked in the field of science and technology probably have long felt the rapid growth of China’s scientific and technological research abilities in their respective fields of study.

One thing to watch closely is the way scientific talent is sourced. This is where the United States and China are significantly different from one another. The United States attracts scientific talents from abroad by its advanced research environment and abundant capital. In contrast, China produces about 80,000 PhDs in science, technology, engineering and math every year. This is four times that of the United States. China produces its own talent.

Despite these favorable conditions, the Chinese government has been trying to attract overseas talents through its “One Thousand People” program. It has even introduced a system of offering compensation up to 30 times the average annual salary to attract outstanding overseas researchers. You can imagine how serious the country is about securing scientific talent.

What about Korea’s situation? Foreign media reported that Korea’s successful state-led growth has reached its limits. This is believed to be caused by the country’s weakness in innovating basic technologies, a sharp decline in world-class key technology areas, low labor productivity and a declining number of working-age people due to a low birthrate. But the real problem is that these aren’t the only reasons why Korea has hit a wall.

College admissions, which determine the direction of secondary education, rely heavily on math skills. For the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), it is important to learn and memorize question types. Comprehension, application, imagination, convergence, potential and creativity are all important skills to develop through education, but they are not priorities in the CSAT, which requires students to solve many problems in a short time.

The first reason why the CSAT system has lasted so long despite these limitations is that memorization-based assessments can be a good indicator of other abilities. The second reason is that it is easier to ensure fairness with multiple-choice assessments. The third reason is that CSAT questions, even with their flaws, have a higher quality than other test questions.

These are all acceptable reasons, but they ignore the real problem that we need to overcome. Tests should exist for education, but in our reality, secondary education exists for the CSAT. As a result, we are forced to abandon the duties of education to develop various abilities. Under this circumstance, how can we expect innovative talents who will pioneer the future? If we want to train future talents, we need to normalize secondary education and solve the problems in the country’s college admissions system.

Another urgent problem is the concentration of excellent students in medical schools. There are many fields that we need to focus on for the future, such as basic sciences including math and physics, life sciences including medical sciences, and the humanities. And yet, it is a tragic reality that among last year’s students who had the top CSAT scores, 19 out of 20 enrolled in majors related to medical studies.

The Pythagorean aesthetic of harmony and balance is still relevant today. No matter how great a single column is, it cannot make the whole building beautiful.

Harmony and balance are also important in the academic world. The extreme preference of medical schools seriously undermines academia, certainly including science, and our entire future. While it is important to train brilliant minds, it is even more important to think about what kind of talents we train and how their achievements interact with one another to find breakthroughs.

We must first ensure that talented people are evenly distributed across disciplines. Who should coordinate this? Civic groups cannot do this, and the government can’t force it either. Nor can it be accomplished by appealing to patriotism and encouraging individuals to voluntarily make sacrifices.

The tragedy of the commons from game theory shows that rational individual choices do not guarantee the good of a community as a whole. Though the extreme preference of medical schools may be a rational choice for each individual, it is a tragedy for society as a whole.

It takes 30 to 50 years to see the outcomes of talent training. We can no longer delay attracting top-caliber people into crucial fields. We need systemic efforts and a determination to respect scientists and introduce a reasonable compensation system for a better future. We must create a system where scientists can enjoy utilizing their talents throughout their lives and contribute to our society.

Translation by the Korea JoongAng Daily staff.