The government is 추진ing a university education innovation programme to boost science and engineering students' practical problem-solving skills and basic maths and science capabilities.

The Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Foundation for the Advancement of Science and Creativity said on Wednesday they had selected the lead institutions for the "Next-Generation Engineer Training Programme" and the "Regional STEM University Students Basic Competency Strengthening Support Programme".

The Next-Generation Engineer Training Programme supports science and engineering students in directly carrying out research to solve real-world problems presented by companies. It selected two consortia led by Busan National University and Yonsei University, and chose the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology as the support group.

The Busan National University consortium includes Pukyong National University, Kunsan National University and Mokpo National University. It will focus on AI, advanced robotics and manufacturing, aerospace and marine, secondary batteries, hydrogen and next-generation nuclear power.

The Busan National University consortium will build a mega-regional industry-academia cooperation platform across the east, west and south regions, focusing on regional specialised fields such as next-generation energy. It plans to reshape industry challenges into practical assignments and provide job-focused education, with a goal of training more than 1,000 people over five years to help resolve regional issues.

The Yonsei University consortium includes Konkuk University, Korea University, Sogang University, Ajou University and Hanyang University. It will focus support on semiconductors and displays, AI, and advanced robotics and manufacturing.

The Yonsei University consortium will work with about 180 companies to operate an undergraduate-led problem-solving "Praxis" model. It aims to support more than 80 teams each year and produce more than 1,200 practice-ready engineers over five years.

The Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology, selected as the support group, will build a nationwide "Next-Generation Engineer Network". It will support participating students' entry into society through performance-sharing events, technical consulting, links to internships and jobs, and career tracking surveys for up to five years.

POSTECH in the Daegyeong region and Chonnam National University in the Honam region were selected as the lead universities for the Regional STEM University Students Basic Competency Strengthening Support Programme. The two universities will receive up to 13.5 billion won in total for up to five years to reform basic maths and science curricula and lab and practical training.

POSTECH will split basic courses across five fields - maths, physics, chemistry, life sciences and AI - into separate classes based on students' levels. It will organise key learning units by subject into "competency blocks" to help students build capabilities needed for their desired majors.

It will fully replace ageing lab equipment that has been used for more than 20 years by 2027. It will also set up a "Bridge" laboratory where undergraduates can use analysis and measurement equipment in graduate research labs. Together with North Gyeongsang Province and Pohang city, it will spread the education model to regional universities and high school students. ㅎ

Chonnam National University will build a basic STEM education hub for the Honam region, centred on four fields: maths, physics, chemistry and biology. It will structure basic courses into regular faculty classes and practice sessions led by graduate teaching assistants, and reduce enrolment from 50 students in 2026 to levels of 30 for theory and 20 for experiments by 2030.

To help apply basic course knowledge to majors and industrial field problems, it will also develop team-teaching courses led by basic and major-subject faculty. It will restructure lab courses by linking learning objectives with theory courses and plans to assign two teaching assistants per class by 2030.

Lee Jun-bae (이준배), director general for future talent policy at the ministry, said science and engineering universities are a cradle for cultivating science and technology talent that will drive innovation in advanced technologies such as AI. He said the ministry would actively support the newly selected lead universities so they become leading cases of innovation in science and engineering university education.