Professors express grave concern for academic autonomy

Professors in South Korea have expressed grave concern over government interference following a Ministry of Science and ICT decision to call on the board of trustees of the prestigious Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) to suspend its president, alleging he had been involved in embezzlement in his previous post at another university.

KAIST’s board of trustees, in a statement in December, said that the board chairman, Jang-Moo Lee, received an official document from Science and ICT Minister Young-min Yoo at the end of November requesting the suspension of KAIST President Shin Sung-chul.

The ministry alleged via the Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office that Shin had embezzled public research funds while president of Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST), which Shin led from 2011 until 2017 when he was appointed to head KAIST by South Korea’s then president Park Geun-hye. Shin refutes the allegation.

In response to the government, KAIST’s Lee tabled Shin’s suspension at a board meeting in December but a decision on the university’s leadership was postponed until the results of the prosecutor’s investigation are known.

The 10-member board, which includes three government representatives, one of them from the science ministry, who argued against postponing the decision, issued a statement on 14 December expressing concern at the effect of the ministry’s move on KAIST’s global standing “as a result of the audit that took place at another institution”.

“KAIST has fallen into a state of confusion,” the statement said.

KAIST professors said the ministry had mishandled the issue by demanding Shin’s suspension before the prosecutor’s investigation was completed.

Payments to California lab

The ministry alleges that while in his previous post Shin made “illegal” payments to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory or LBNL in California as part of a deal to allow DGIST researchers to access the laboratory’s imaging facilities.

According to a ministry audit, DGIST paid a total of US$2 million from 2013 until March 2018 for access to the California-based laboratory. But the ministry claims this was not part of the original 2012 agreement between the Korean institute and LBNL. Instead, the ministry maintains that DGIST did not need to spend Korean state funds as the equipment could be used for free under the 2012 agreement.

The ministry accuses Shin of a “double contract” – a claim Shin strenuously denied – and breach of trust.

A lawyer for the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, in an email to the ministry dated 11 November, said there had been no problem with the joint research project between the laboratory and DGIST and that the accounts were incorporated according to the regulations.

Concern over government interference

Academics have been highly critical of the government’s attempt to pressure the KAIST board to remove Shin. More than 1,000 academics, including over 250 from KAIST, have signed a petition opposing any board move to suspend Shin. The KAIST faculty council and KAIST alumni in Silicon Valley also issued separate statements in support of the university’s president.

A national science civil society organisation, the Citizens’ Coalition for a Scientific Society, in a statement, called on the ministry to withdraw its charges against the KAIST president and conduct a proper audit. “The prosecution’s accusations went ahead without any opportunity for a proper investigation,” according to the statement.

It noted that heads of university departments are often unable to fulfil their term of office when the country’s leadership changes. “Under the last regime a science and technology blacklist was drawn up, to the astonishment of the scientific world,” said the statement issued in December, referring to blacklists drawn up under the regime of Park, who was impeached on corruption charges in 2016 and later imprisoned.

“Political involvement must be eliminated in the science and technology world as it violates academic autonomy and interferes with a creative research climate,” the civil society group said. It called on the ministry to establish a fair and transparent system that would block future political interference.

Premature resignations

Scientists have been concerned that around a dozen heads of science and technology departments appointed under former president Park have resigned or have come under pressure to resign since President Moon Jae-in took over after the May 2017 elections.

Notably, Park Tae-hyun, chairman of the Korea Science and Technology Foundation, and Hwang Jin-taek, head of energy technology evaluation in the science and ICT ministry, resigned in 2017 before their mandates were up.

This was followed by resignations last year of the director of the Institute of Biotechnology, Seo Sang Hyun; the then head of Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources, Shun kyung-ho; the president of Korea Institute of Science and Technology Evaluation and Planning, Yim Kee-chul; and the director of the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute.

Park Sung-Hyun, an emeritus professor of Seoul National University, said in a commentary in Future Korea that the government’s action is a “serious breach of autonomy in research” involving the withdrawal of science heads who “do not fit the political code”.

He added that the decision by the KAIST board would “heighten accusations that the ministry has caused confusion due to its hasty judgement” in the case.

A KAIST spokeswoman told University World News that the KAIST board would decide on Shin’s future at a later date. “The case is now under investigation of the prosecutor’s office and we believe it will take time for a full investigation,” she said.

The board “is unwilling to decide before the final result comes through from the [Seoul] prosecutor’s office”, she added.

As the case relates to Shin’s previous institution, “it is very hard to conduct an internal investigation at KAIST”, she said. “We are not fully aware of the nature of the case.”

Meanwhile, she stressed that “everything is continuing as normal” at KAIST “and the leadership is solid at this moment”.