S. Korea faces shortage of science and engineering talent

Since the mid-2010s, approximately 30,000 undergraduate and graduate students majoring in science and technology have left Korea each year to study abroad. The concern is that foreign science talents filling this gap are less competitive than their Korean counterparts. This "talent deficit" could lead to a decline in Korea's science and technology competitiveness.

According to the OECD, the contribution of outbound South Korean science researchers to scientific journals was 1.69 in 2022, whereas the contribution of inbound science researchers to South Korea was only 1.41. The OECD translated the contributions of 61 nations into numerical scores using the Scimago Journal Ranking (SJR), which ranks scientific journals, based on their publication output and prestige.

The score for outbound researchers from South Korea was on par with the U.S. (1.69) and higher than France (1.66), Canada (1.65), Austria (1.67), and Japan (1.55). This indicates that relatively excellent researchers are leaving the country. In contrast, the score for foreign inbound researchers in South Korea was 1.41, significantly lower than the U.S. (2.16) and also lower than China (1.52), France (1.66), and Austria (1.74). "The number of job opportunities for Korean doctorate holders in science and technology is decreasing every year, and their treatment is inferior compared to the U.S. and other advanced countries. If this trend continues, Korea’s scientific competitiveness will inevitably decline," said a professor of science and technology at a university in Seoul.


최지원 jwchoi@donga.com