Seoul National University's plan to cultivate 100 convergence-type artificial intelligence (AI) talents in the era of AI transformation (AX) has been rejected by education authorities, it has been confirmed. The school's vision of establishing a student-driven AI curriculum regardless of major has hit a snag. Concerns are emerging that while the two AI powerhouses, the United States and China, are strengthening their AI competitiveness on the back of active AI education, urgent AI talent cultivation in Korea is stumbling at the university gate.
According to academia on Wednesday, Seoul National University applied to the Ministry of Education for an expansion plan to establish a new "Convergence AI Broad-Area" admission unit with a quota of 100 students within its School of Liberal Studies, but the application was rejected in mid-December. The envisioned curriculum would have allowed students to enter without declaring a major and then study AI in conjunction with other disciplines.
"As the importance of AX grows with the spread of agentic AI, we planned to cultivate convergence-type AI talent, but we understand that approval was not granted on the grounds that it does not align with the government policy's intent," a key Seoul National University official said. Universities can currently expand the quotas of departments in advanced fields such as AI and semiconductors with Ministry of Education approval, but the undeclared-major admission format was identified as the reason for rejection.
Academia broadly agrees that, given the rapidly changing trends in the AI industry, the government's AI talent policy should be structured in a direction that guarantees broad autonomy for universities. As AX, in which AI is utilized and applied across all industries and throughout society beyond engineering, has emerged as a global challenge, AI education unbound by majors should be invigorated, they argue.
Park Dong, honorary member of the Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training, who recently issued a report titled "China's AI Talent Cultivation Strategy and Implications," said, "When China announced its comprehensive national strategy, the 'Next Generation AI Development Plan,' in 2017, China's advanced AI talent was produced on a large scale and the AI talent war between the U.S. and China began in earnest." He added, "In Korea, where the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Science and ICT, and local governments operate separately, it is urgent to establish a system that integrally designs and coordinates AI talent cultivation policies."
