A day after meeting the school psychiatrist, a 19-year-old mathematics student at South Korea’s most prestigious engineering college jumped to his death from a high-rise apartment. He was distressed over low grades.
The gifted student’s suicide last week was not an isolated incident — three other students have killed themselves since January at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), a school that admits only the brightest South Korean students.
The deaths of four young people might not normally draw attention in a nation all too familiar with suicide: South Korea has one of the world’s highest rates and the highest in the developed world. Several high-profile South Koreans, including former president Roh Moo-hyun, have taken their own life in recent years.
However, their occurrence at a university that aspires to be a local version of the US’ vaunted Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the suicides have jolted the nation and left many wondering if South Korean society’s unabashed pursuit of overachievement has gone too far.
“We tend to consider everyone other than the first-place winner as losers,” said Kwak Keum-joo, a psychologist at Seoul National University. “As the society gets modernized, human relations have been subsequently cut, as people don’t have friends to share their hardships and listen to their problems.”
The obsession with academic success has even given rise to a new expression among young people: umchinah, or “my mother’s friend’s son” — the elusive competitor who excels at everything.
The pressure to perform begins in high school. Classes begin around 8am and finish around 4pm, but in some schools students are required to stay as late as 10pm. Many students turn to private tutoring, some even study with tutors until 2am ahead of key exams.
Getting admission into colleges like KAIST is the ultimate dream of most high school science students.
According to Education Ministry figures, three elementary-school students, 53 junior-high students and 90 high-school students committed suicide last year.
Investigations are under way to determine what led the four KAIST students — all males aged between 19 and 25 — to kill themselves, but blame is being heaped on the university’s US-educated president, Suh Nam-pyo, and his ambitious efforts to create an ultra-competitive environment meant to carve an international name for the university.
After taking over in 2006, Suh ordered most of the university’s classes taught in English and financially penalized students with poor grades. Otherwise, the state-funded college provides free education.
Looking to boost KAIST’s worldwide reputation, Suh also made it easier to fire professors falling behind certain standards.
Suh’s moves initially drew strong support, and KAIST’s placing in world university ranks rose dramatically. Proponents lauded the 74-year-old as the icon of South Korean campus reform.
The adulation didn’t last long, however. His actions have been fiercely debated this year amid news reports that the four dead students suffered immense stress over their schoolwork.
Politicians, activists and liberal professors outside KAIST are calling for Suh’s immediate resignation. He was questioned on Tuesday at a parliamentary committee meeting about the recent deaths.
Before the latest student suicide, Suh defended his policies, saying smart students would not come to a university that does not challenge them.
He later offered a public apology for the deaths and pledged to abolish financial penalties for low grades and ease the requirement for English-only classes.
However, he said the competitive academic program may not be the only reason for the suicides and that he has no plans to step down immediately.
“I think it’s proper to leave after completing the work I began to some extent,” Suh said.
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