This is part of the KAIST Terman Report.
This chapter concerns several matters that KAIS will need to consider after the initial operation is established and running smoothly.
KAIS's initial objectives as to size are quite appropriate for 1978. However, as the Korean economy develops, it is to be expected that KAIS will be called upon to expand its operations. This expansion will have two components: more students per major field, and more major fields in which instruction would be offered.
In carrying out any such expansion, it is important that the minium critical size criteria for individual areas of study in KAIS's original plan continue to be respected. That is, for each new MS curriculum there should be a minimum of 15 new students entering annually and also a minimum of 5-6 additional faculty members.
It is also important that such expansion not dilute the finances of KAIS; that is, each new program or curriculum must bring with it additional funds. In no case should the cost of offering a new curriculum be obtained by redistribution of funds, faculty, or students allocated to existing curricula. Failure to adhere to this procedure will lower the quality of KAIS and thus will be self-defeating.
Expansion at the doctoral level should proceed only as fast as industry and academic institutions require an increased number of highly trained specialists oriented toward the technological needs of Korean industry. The demand for such individuals can be measured by the number and character of job offers to ScD graduates, and by the associated salary as compared with the salary received by KAIS graduates with MS training.
In view of the high probability that KAIS will be called upon to expand, the site development plan and the layout of the initial building(s) should include provision for additions to the physical plant. Similarly, initial planning should take into account the future needs with respect to student and faculty housing, parking, roads, utilities, etc.
Once KAIS has established its place in Korea, consideration should be givben to the possibility of enrolling employed engineers and scientists as part-time MS students in degree programs. Such part-time programs are an important factor in U.S. education, as indicated by the fact that in the fall of 1969, over one-half (57%) of the 47,000 students studying in the U.S. for the MS degree in engineering were part-time students. Many institutions, including Stanford, Columbia, Rensselaer Polytechnic, Carnegie-Mellon, and UCLA are involved in such programs. Such part-time education has the merit of upgrading competence without loss of economic productivity.
Several patterns of part-time education have been developed. First, part-time students may attend regularly scheduled daytime classes. This requires that the student's place of employment be either close the campus, or that he be absent from work on some manageable schedule such as three mornings per week. Second, it is possible to make regularly scheduled classes available to industrial employees on an in-plant basis by the use of closed-circuit television, or alternatively by videotape, as discussed in the next section. Through such arrangements, the potential audience is increased greatly in size.
Finally, it is possible to repeat the daytime lecture in the evening to serve students employed in industry. Although this last arrangement is widely used in the U.S., it has numerous disadvantages: (1) regular day lectures must be repeated; (2) the alertness of both faculty and students is below normal; (3) the time students spend commuting to class often equals or exceeds the time spent in class; and (4) finally, there is a very real danger that in a special class for a special group of students, the standards will be below those maintianed in the "regular" class populated by full-time students.
The best way for KAIS to test the feasibility of permitting part-time enrollment in MS programs would be to start by allowing a limited number of properly qualified employees of KIST (and other institutions in the Science Park) to enroll in regular classes on a half-time or less-than-half-time basis. The next step would be to extend the same privilege to employees of selected industrial concerns who could arrange to spend the necessary time on the KAIS campus, such as three half-days per week. In all cases, these part-time students would be required to take an appropriate entrance examination, and to receive a grade on it that indicated they were capable of performing satisfactorily in their studies at KAIS.