[Meet the President] SNU envisions becoming biotech hub in itself

In a recent interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily's CEO Cheong Chul-gun, Ryu Hong-lim, president of Seoul National University, talked about the school's aspirations.

Ryu Hong-lim, president of Seoul National University, speaks during an interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily. [KIM SANG-SEON]

As Korea's most prestigious university, Seoul National University (SNU) offers academic programs in just about any imaginable field.

But among the many, one area it has an upper hand is the biomedical field.

"SNU has faculty in various fields, but one of our biggest strengths is in the biomedical field," Ryu Hong-lim, president of SNU, said. "There's no other institution, not just in Korea, but also globally, that has faculty or infrastructure like ours."

"We even have dental hospitals and are also planning on building more hospitals in Siheung [, Gyeonggi,] as well."

Amid Korea's plans to build a biotech cluster, the Seoul National University Hospital has been on many people's lips. Its main hospital is in Jongno District, central Seoul, but it also consists of other branches such as the Children's Hospital, the Cancer Hospital and the Biomedical Research Institute.

One project suggested by the Ministry of Science and ICT was a collaboration between the hospital and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), potentially conducting research on fields regarding cancer diagnosis and training of physician-scientists.

Although SNU stands out with its existing infrastructure and faculty, the university doesn't stop there. It plans to improve its curriculum to give its students a competitive edge.

One of the ongoing changes is the new Living & Learning (LnL) program, similar to residential college programs in other countries. Starting this year, around 300 students are living together at the university dorm and put into small groups, participating in various programs and seminars to foster a collaborative learning environment.

Although only 300 students are currently part of the LnL program, the university aims to have all its first-year students — around 3,500 per year — live in residential colleges in the future.

In a recent interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily's CEO Cheong Chul-gun, Ryu talked about the school's aspirations.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

A rendering of the Siheung Baegot Seoul National University Hospital that will be built in Siheung, Gyeonggi. [SIHEUNG CITY]

Inspired by Boston's biotech hub, Korea plans to build a global biotech cluster. One of the plans suggested is to create a collaborative research platform between the Seoul National University Hospital and MIT. Are there any specific plans coming along?

Our professors have participated in around 1,000 joint research projects with Harvard and MIT professors. But the problem is that they have been collaborating with each other individually, not as joint collaborations between universities or institutions. Harvard and MIT professors work together at the biotech cluster in Boston. That's where everything — educating talent and conducting research — happens.

SNU also has that potential. We have around 2,300 professors at SNU, and over 1,000 of them are considered to be in the biomedical field in a broad sense. If you just look at professors in our College of Medicine and School of Dentistry, that's already 600. There are also professors in our College of Engineering and School of Chemical and Biological Engineering whose area of expertise branches into bio.

Hospitals play a big role in creating a bio cluster because having clinical data is important. SNU hospitals' clinical data is considered the most comprehensive medical big data. If we start using that, we have even more potential than the biotech cluster in Boston. We have made agreements with Carnegie Mellon University and plan to make agreements with Harvard and MIT to create more networking opportunities and build joint research centers. Our Siheung Campus can become a global bio cluster in itself, and we plan on hosting more joint and global R&D centers there.

The Siheung Campus was selected as one of the five global bio campuses that will train students as part of the World Health Organization's project to establish a biomanufacturing training hub in Korea. Among the five campuses, what makes the Siheung Campus stand out?

Our biggest strength is that we can create a global R&D platform that covers various interdisciplinary areas. We have the faculty and resources for that. Also, SNU will be the university that mainly utilizes existing networks to create further projects.

During your inaugural address in February, you announced goals to create a unique "SNU education model." What will be the primary goal of the education model?

SNU aims to take an interdisciplinary approach to educating our students. But what does interdisciplinary education mean? It's not just about simply combining multiple academic disciplines.

Until now, our education only focused on teaching knowledge. However, we need to combine various areas of study to encourage new ways of thinking and to find new ways to solve problems.

In the future, one of the most important skills students will be required to have is the ability to solve problems that don't have answers and adapt to uncertain situations. To do so, people need to communicate and work with others. Learning those skills isn't just about thinking rationally. Learning how to sympathize is also important.

Seoul National University President Ryu Hong-lim, delivers an inauguration speech in February, at the start of his term as the university's president. [YONHAP]

What specific changes has SNU gone through to achieve its goals?

One is the creation of a new division teaching interdisciplinary studies. Students in the division get to choose their majors in the second semester of their sophomore year and actually study specific majors in their junior year. The majors they can choose aren't majors that were available in the past but new interdisciplinary majors we newly created. The program opens next year, and we'll be starting with just 218 students, but that is the type of education we aim to provide at SNU. They will be learning various interdisciplinary studies throughout their first two years in university, participating in classes that involve debates and discussions.

Right now, students at SNU have to take around 40 credits as electives. But we aim to change our elective system in 2025. Currently, the Faculty of Liberal Education, which is in charge of operating elective programs, is categorized as a supporting organization within the university. But we aim to redesignate it as an educational division. We also plan on finding ways to link the curriculum to our LnL program.

LnL is currently a pilot program, but the university aims to make it an official program in the future. What does the program aim to achieve?

The main goal of our LnL program is not to create just a place where students sleep but to implement the so-called house system at universities abroad. Residential colleges, or houses, at universities overseas offer common areas for students, and they don't use dorms just as a place to sleep. They engage in conversations and activities together. Some universities even have students in the same house to eat dinner together.

Students from houses that have hundreds of years of history create valuable lifelong networks. Meeting people in various fields at the house, they develop a sense of community as well.

SNU will need more dorms to house all first-year students in the future, and that will also require reconstruction projects. How does SNU plan on achieving that?

We plan on using government funds bit by bit for the reconstruction of our dorms starting next year. But reconstruction is also about redesigning the living spaces. There are some dorms that are currently going through reconstruction, but most of our dorms are designed to be separate rooms that share one hallway. To make dorms suitable for our LnL project, we need to tear down the physical barriers between residents to make more common areas.

We also plan on giving naming rights to those who donate around 30 or 50 billion ($22.4 to 37.3 million) to finance reconstruction projects, like how universities abroad do.

A first-year student at Seoul National University attend the matriculation ceremony in March. [YONHAP]

Korean universities are aiming to become more global as they recruit more international students and faculty. Does SNU have plans to enhance its global competitiveness?

We haven't been seeing much positive results from past globalization efforts. It might be because of the Covid-19 pandemic, but we even see a decrease in students here who go abroad to study. That's also a problem, and we need to help our students develop global competence.

Regarding international students, many of them decide to come study here because they're interested in Korean culture. We will see more international students coming to study here, even for graduate schools. But there isn't much being done regarding practical globalization at universities. By that, I'm talking about universities not having a straightforward system to manage students and helping students improve their academic ability.

There is criticism that not just SNU but Korea overall lacks global competitiveness. And on our side, we can't boost our global competitiveness if we don't implement global standards in our university. Whether it's admissions, professor evaluation or faculty recruitment, we need to be much more flexible. Applying to university and getting visas are very complicated, even for students at SNU, as Korea has many restrictions, even if we wanted to admit more students or faculty based on global standards.

For example, in Singapore, almost 60 percent of faculty at its universities are foreigners. Tsinghua University also makes a lot of investments to hire foreign faculty, which is how we can enhance global competitiveness. SNU also used to invite talented foreign faculty, like those who have won Nobel Prizes. There was a time when we even had 200 foreign faculty, which is about 10 percent of our faculty. But now, the number has dropped to 5 percent. Yes, it could be a problem on our side. But even if we invite students, researchers and professors from abroad, living can be inconvenient for them. Even the smallest things, like getting a loan, are more difficult for foreigners.

Is there anything that can be done from the government's side?

Enhancing the global competitiveness of universities also affects Korea's competitiveness, and it is best if the government also invests in projects to encourage joint international research and exchange programs. The government and the Ministry of Justice will make some systematic changes, but we, as a university, must also make huge investments.

Are there any other goals you want to achieve during your term?

One of SNU's key goals is to create a transdisciplinary research platform. The bio cluster in Siheung is one example, but another important area is fostering research in contemporary Korean studies. It's different from Korean studies, going in-depth about the society that Korea is today and discussing various experiences in Korean society these days. Interest in Korean culture and our economy is growing. If you go to countries in Southeast Asia, there are a lot of people who are curious about Korea and want to learn more, and SNU can take on the role of a think tank. Our Institute for Future Strategy has seven clusters that delve into those issues, and we plan to expand our scope even more.

President's bio

Ryu Hong-lim is the 28th president of Seoul National University. His four-year term began in February 2023.

He played a pivotal role in establishing the Institute for Future Strategy at Seoul National University last year.

On campus, Ryu spent an extensive period of his career teaching at the university's Department of Political Science and International Relations from 1995 to 2023. He was the dean of the university's College of Social Science between 2020 and 2022. He also served as the editor-in-chief of Seoul National University's newspaper, also known as Daehakshinmoon, between 2012 and 2015. Between 2002 and 2004, he was the vice dean for student affairs at the College of Social Sciences.

He earned his bachelor's and master's in political science from Seoul National University and his doctorate in the same field from Rutgers University.

About the university

Name Seoul National University

Type National

Established Oct. 15, 1946

English slogan A Community of Knowledge, Leading the Future

Location Gwanak Main Campus: Gwanak District, southern Seoul Yeongeon Medical Campus: Jongno District, central Seoul Pyeongchang Campus: Pyeongchang County, Gangwon Siheung Campus: Siheung, Gyeonggi

Campus size 8,740,207 square meters (2,159.75 acres)

Undergraduate colleges and departments Colleges: 15 Schools and departments: 83 Graduate schools:13 Students (2022) Undergraduates: 20,390 Postgraduates: 13,558 Total: 33,948

Full-time academic staff (2022) 2,188

Employment rate (2021) 71.1 percent

English website https://en.snu.ac.kr/

Instagram @snu.official YouTube https://www.youtube.com/c/ SeoulNationalUniversity

International studentsNumber of students (2022) Undergraduates: 208 Postgraduates: 1,035 Short-term students (language learning, exchange program, etc.): 437 Total: 1,680 By country (2022) China 27 percent United States 8 percent Germany 4 percent Other 61 percent (105 countries) Department with the most international students (2022) College of Engineering

Average tuition of self-funded undergraduate students per year (2022) 6 million won ($4,200)

BY LEE TAE-HEE [lee.taehee2@joongang.co.kr