In this blog post, we examine whether scholarships and military service benefits are realistic alternatives to solving the phenomenon of students avoiding science and engineering.
South Korea is currently facing a crisis in its science and engineering fields. Korean newspapers and broadcasts report on the phenomenon of students avoiding enrollment in science and engineering universities. Universities complain that talented students are leaving the field, leaving it with a shortage of skilled workers. Industrial sites are struggling to find workers despite the need for labor. Society refers to this as the “science and engineering crisis.” Some argue that the STEM crisis is exaggerated, claiming that enough students are enrolling in STEM fields, employment is relatively easy, and some even belong to high-income occupational groups. If that is the case, why is the STEM crisis being discussed everywhere? This is because the focus of the STEM crisis is not simply a shortage of numbers, but the outflow of outstanding core talent. In fact, it is not only STEM fields that are facing difficulties in the current economic situation. Excluding medical and law schools, few fields are doing well. Yet STEM stands out because it accounts for a high proportion of university students and has a significant impact on society and the economy. Before discussing solutions to the STEM crisis, let us examine its background in the context of economic trends.
As of 2025, South Korea’s economy is considered to have avoided the worst. After experiencing the IMF crisis in 1997, the Korean economy rebounded but had to overcome several obstacles. There were many internal and external difficulties, such as the credit card crisis (2003), the dot-com bubble burst (1999), and the global financial crisis triggered by the subprime mortgage crisis (2007). The South Korean economy, which relies heavily on export-driven growth, is highly sensitive to global economic conditions and is currently navigating a prolonged period of uncertainty amid challenging global economic conditions. S&P and Moody’s have upgraded South Korea’s credit ratings, noting that the country has managed the crisis relatively well compared to other OECD nations, despite challenges such as the European economic crisis, declining U.S. consumer spending, and concerns over China’s economic slowdown. However, the hardships faced by individual citizens remain significant. This is evidenced by the popularity of “healing” books sweeping bookstores. Companies are shifting to emergency management systems in preparation for an uncertain economic outlook for next year, and news of workforce reductions is emerging from various sectors. In particular, research personnel with engineering and science backgrounds, who account for a significant proportion of the workforce, are being targeted for reductions.
During economic downturns, research and development personnel, i.e., those with engineering and science backgrounds, are the first to experience job losses in the industry. This occupational instability has become ingrained in society, and young people who have witnessed science and engineering graduates losing their jobs during economic crises have naturally come to avoid science and engineering fields. High-achieving students prefer relatively stable careers such as medicine or law, leading to a surge in applications to related departments. This trend is clearly evident in university admissions, particularly at Seoul National University, where the college entrance exam scores of science and engineering applicants are lower than those of medical school applicants.
Even top students who do enter science and engineering fields often go on to medical or law school or study abroad after graduation. As a result, there are very few talented individuals remaining in science and engineering fields. To address this crisis, the government, businesses, and universities have proposed various solutions. First, there are scholarship programs that provide financial assistance to science and engineering students to reduce their tuition costs and encourage them to stay in their fields.
A notable example is the Korea Scholarship Foundation’s STEM Scholarship, which fully covers tuition fees for students with outstanding admission scores who maintain a certain academic performance. However, despite these scholarship benefits, outstanding students continue to leave for medicine and law fields. This indicates that scholarships alone cannot resolve the STEM crisis.
Next, there is a military service exemption program.
This program exempts male students from military service if they work as research personnel at domestic science and engineering universities or related companies, with the aim of encouraging them to pursue science and engineering fields and preventing them from going abroad for further studies. While this program has enabled many students to pursue master’s and doctoral degrees without military service, many still choose to study abroad despite the military obligation. Additionally, an engineering certification program has been proposed.
This program, operated by the Korean Accreditation Board for Engineering Education, grants engineering certification to engineering graduates who meet certain criteria, with the goal of enhancing the social value of graduates. However, the effectiveness of this program is low because society and industry do not recognize the value of engineering certification. Other proposals include research funding support, improvements in research environments and working conditions, relaxation of unnecessary regulations, and systematic management of science and technology human resources.
Despite these efforts, the fundamental issues underlying the crisis in science and engineering have not been addressed. This is because the proposed solutions fail to address the core issue of occupational instability in the field. To resolve the crisis, outstanding students must perceive a successful future in science and engineering and anticipate stable career prospects. Currently, students are flocking to medical and law schools not because of tuition fees or military exemption but because these fields offer guaranteed stability after graduation.
The core solution lies in regulating the supply of science and engineering talent. Given the excessive supply of science and engineering graduates relative to industrial demand, coupled with low wage levels, it is necessary to reduce the supply to raise wages. Doctors and lawyers have no fixed retirement age, and professors retire between 60 and 70 years old. However, science and engineering professionals in the private sector have short career lifespans. Due to the short cycle of technological change, science and engineering graduates are prone to losing their jobs at a young age if they fail to develop their skills. In contrast, doctors and lawyers have long career lifespans and can engage in economic activity for an extended period. For this reason, a structure must be established to enable science and engineering personnel to earn higher incomes during their relatively short economic activity period, which requires a reduction in the number of science and engineering students admitted to universities.
However, there is criticism that such supply adjustments are difficult to implement in reality. This is because consistent government policies and support are needed to reduce university enrollment quotas, and universities themselves find it challenging to reduce quotas due to their reliance on tuition fees. Additionally, the industrial sector is likely to oppose reductions in the supply of science and technology personnel, as this could lead to increased costs such as research and product development expenses. However, regulating the supply of science and engineering personnel is a necessary measure to restore the lives of science and technology personnel who have been sacrificed in the process of Korea’s economic development and to establish a sustainable economic development model.
Along with this, a realistic alternative is to propose a plan to concentrate research funding. The current decentralized approach to research funding should be discontinued, and instead, full support should be provided to a small number of promising research institutions and talented individuals with the potential to create value in order to promote the qualitative development of research. Through this, research personnel will be able to achieve sustained results based on a satisfactory standard of living and research environment, and society will recognize the value of the lives of those engaged in technological research and development.
In summary, to resolve the crisis in science and engineering, the quality of life and income levels of science and engineering graduates must be improved.
