대학-기업 간 산학 협력에 관한 기사입니다.
산학 협력이 대학의 역량 강화에 기여하려면 대학-기업 간의 소통 확대가 필요하다는 문제의식을 바탕으로
국내 대학-기업 간 산학 협력의 모델을 살펴보았습니다.
이를 바탕으로 바람직한 한국형 산학협력 모델을 제시해 보았습니다.
Silicon Valley in California is one of the most innovative industrial areas. World leading enterprises such as Apple and Google are located there. Around 7,000 venture companies and about 40% of the capital invested in America moved there when it was first formed. This is the example of Industry-University Collaboration (IUC). It is the cooperation between university and companies for the development and achievement of technical knowledge by investing together. The United States is the where it occurred, and in Korea, it started with the institution of law named “Enforcement degree of the promotion of industrial education and industry” in 1963.
The Silicon Valley was derived from the Stanford Research Park established by Stanford University in 1954. The research-park attracted various investments; therefore, Stanford University eased the insufficiency of university finances. It led to an unexpected result as described above. With the grand scale of the investments, the Stanford Research Park succeeded in making a cooperative model with companies by providing excellent faculty and students.
Through this example of the Silicon Valley, a primary expected effect is inferred for the IUC. That is the enforcement of financial outlook a university; it turns into enormous capacity for study. As mentioned before, it is helpful to a university which has shortages in its budget. It is also able to form the virtuous-cycle structure of the IUC. Like Stanford University, when it launchs the the IUC with various companies, the university can provide their technology. Then, the university was able to gain income from the royalty of the technology. Therefore, the finances of the university would be reinforced, and then the university would set to develop new technology to sell to companies. This can be called a virtuous-cycle.
It would be in the best interest to the participating companies as well as universities in the IUC. They can be given competent university students by investing in that business and easily achieve their research goals with a smaller amount thanks to the collaboration, which is the production foundation. Thus, the IUC is the profited way for both universities and companies.
“The age of collaboration has dawned because the work of the IUC meets the demands for businesses and universities,” said Yoon, Kyung-sook, the secretary of Industry-University Collaboration Division at the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology (MEST). In actuality, the 2003 MEST-instituted Industry-University Collaboration Division witnessed an increase in funding annually since its inception. 30 billion won is added for on top of 140 billion won for next year. As the government has increased its support for the IUC, the number of universities and companies participating is growing. The number of the universities within the Industry Academic Cooperation Foundation increased from 333 to 356 compared to 2006. These trends show that the IUC is revving up gradually in Korea.
What is the characteristic of the IUC in Korea? There are two types. First is the collaboration between a university and a major company, and the second is between a university and small and medium businesses. Each type has the same intent of pursuing positive effects through the IUC; however, they are different in each purpose.
At first, major companies want promising students in order to grow them into competent members of their companies. In other words, they are collaborating with universities by directly encouraging colleges to open new departments, and providing equipment and scholarships. These new departments that are called ‘contract department’ are already set up at several universities.
In the case of Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU), the Department of Semiconductor Systems Engineering was set up in 2006 for Samsung. The Department of Cellular-phone, the Department of Semiconductor Display, and others also have been established in the graduate courses. “Most curriculums of these departments are composed by the influence of Samsung and it usually accredits their senior researchers to give lectures based on real experiences,” said, Kim, Seung-chul, the chief of the Department of Semiconductor Systems Engineering at SKKU.
This type of collaboration has merits in a certain way. “I think it can guarantee students’ future and also the companies. Students can get a job, what many people long for, and the companies can be offered the highly-educated talent they need,” said Yang, Jin-ho, a sophomore of the Department of Semiconductor Systems Engineering. Also, the result of the survey in this department showed high satisfaction from students last year. Kim said, “About 80-90% of the respondents checked ‘well-content’ or ‘content’ with the curriculum of the Department of Semiconductor Systems Engineering and Samsung’s support for it.”
On the other hand, the grand capital power of a major company is pointed out as the problem. Major companies tend to develop the curriculum only for their companies; thus, other fields of study have difficulty developing. In other words, full university-industry collaboration is not possible.
In sequence, there is collaboration between universities and small and medium companies. The purpose of the collaboration is divided into two ways according to the Korea Industrial Development Institute (KIDI.) One is to lessen the cost and the period of technology development, and the other is to make their public credit ratings and personal connections in studying through this cooperation. In this case, companies usually select universities that have the faculty expertise the company desires.
For example, there are 13 universities participating in the Digital Media Center Research & Development Center (DMC R&D Center) where the IUC is progressing briskly. The DMC R&D Center was established by the Seoul Metropolitan Government to support both universities and small and medium companies related to the IUC in 2006. It provides them labs at a low price and makes the IUC cluster sharing the method of research and development. The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and ESL-Edu take part in this project on ‘mobile graphics technology’ and the University of Seoul and I-set also composed a team to cooperate on ‘Ubiquitous computing.’
This kind of collaboration benefits both the university and small and medium companies because it is possible to produce what the company wants at low cost. Also, it is helpful to the university since the investment fund is used to expand and improve each faculty and department, and the contribution the research team goes towards the school’s honor.
However, there is a problem with this type. The fruition of professors’ studies in each field is not regarded as important. In fact, professors who took part in the research and develope study with companies point out the lack of support of university authorities. According to the research data by KIDI, ‘the shortage of support for professors’ was selected as the second factor of the problem while ‘lack of understanding about relevant technology’ was the first. In the long term, it can do harm to both.
In regard to this matter, there is a movement of MEST to improve the treatment. Yoon, Kyung-sook said, “MEST has prepared several systems to solve this problem. Employing professors who focused on the IUC and introducing the IUC mileage system are examples.”
We have looked at the current status of the IUC in Korea, comparing each feature. Both features have their own strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, the balance between the two features is needed to become like the Silicon Valley. To achieve this, more communication between the university and industry is needed. Lee, Jae-hoon, a manager of Cluster Operation Team, said, “There were rare conversations between the university and the company. Surely, their interest is entirely different as universities pursue research and companies want to make profits. However, communication is needed to maintain the relationship.”
The movement has started already. The “Korea National University Conference for Executives of the IUC” was held in July this year to discuss the policy of the IUC relevant to grow together for both major companies and small and medium businesses. “It is time to help small and medium companies with abundant research, talent, and technology of the university,” said Jeong, Woon-chan, the chief of the Growing Together Committee at the meeting. Also, the “Industry-University-Institute Cooperation EXPO” is held to share examples of each university in every November. It will be a chance to make creative synergy for the Industry-University-Institute. These events have to continue for the bright future of the IUC.
Although the IUC in Korea is not perfect yet, its field possesses high potential since promising and exciting progress has been shown. From now on, communication and cooperation between university and company must proceed. If the IUC at Korean universities make up for its weaknesses, world-wide research parks for the IUC will be formed in Korea like in the Silicon Valley.