The Ministry of Science and ICT (Deputy Prime Minister and Minister Bae Kyung-hoon) held the joint inauguration ceremony for AI-Centered Universities and AX Graduate Schools at Baekyang Nuri Hall of Yonsei University in Seoul on September 29, marking the full-scale start of an AI-centered transformation of university education. Eighteen AI-Centered Universities and 15 AX Graduate Schools newly selected this year are taking part, and the government will provide each institution with 30 billion won per year for up to six to eight years.
 [코리안투데이] Joint inauguration ceremony for AI-Centered Universities and AX Graduate Schools © 장형임 기자 |
The Ministry of Science and ICT announced the official launch on that day after completing the selection of participating universities for the two programs newly established this year, which aim to drive a sweeping AI-centered transformation of university education and to cultivate advanced, field-ready AI convergence talent through cooperation between universities and companies. The event drew some 90 attendees, including Second Vice Minister Ryu Je-myung of the Ministry of Science and ICT, Yonsei University President Yoon Dong-sup, Hallym University President Choi Yang-hee and other presidents of participating universities, Institute of Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation (IITP) President Hong Jin-bae, project leaders, and representatives of participating companies.
The government judges that reforming how universities teach has become urgent, as AI is fundamentally changing not only the acquisition and use of knowledge but also research and development and the way work is done in industry. In an era when AI analyzes problems on its own and rapidly produces results on a par with humans, the ability to define problems, design the process of solving them, and verify and apply the results using AI has become more important than the existing knowledge- and coding-centered education. Accordingly, the transformation is being pursued in a direction that raises the AI capabilities of all members of the university community and redesigns the entire education system by integrating AI into each field of study.
A total of 18 institutions were selected as AI-Centered Universities this year, including three new universities and 15 converted from existing SW-focused universities. Participating universities will each receive 30 billion won per year for up to eight years to strengthen AI major education, make basic AI education mandatory for all students, and create convergence courses linking their majors with AI. The Ministry of Science and ICT said that next year it plans to fully convert the 38 SW-focused universities that have not yet made the transition into AI-Centered Universities following an evaluation.
The AX Graduate School program supports the training of AI convergence talent (AX talent) who combine AI technology with industry and domain knowledge. The 15 institutions selected this year will receive 30 billion won per year for up to six years, and 26 companies leading Korea’s major industrial sectors — including Samsung Electronics, Hanwha Aerospace, POSCO Holdings, Doosan Robotics and LIG D&A — are taking part as joint research and development institutions. Companies and universities will jointly establish ‘AX research cooperation centers’ to carry out specialized research, and will operate a multiple-advisor system in which university faculty and adjunct faculty from companies provide joint supervision, along with student-led, project-based learning, to nurture field-ready talent at the master’s and doctoral levels.
A notable feature of these programs is that they have broadened the participation of universities outside the Seoul metropolitan area to support balanced regional development and a region-driven national AI transformation. Of the 18 AI-Centered Universities, 11 (61 percent) are located outside the metropolitan area, as are eight of the 15 AX Graduate Schools (53 percent), and the government plans to raise the proportion of non-metropolitan institutions among newly selected universities to 70 percent or more from 2027 onward. In addition, all 20 new AI Star Fellowship projects this year, which support creative and challenging research by early-career researchers, are led by universities outside the metropolitan area. These projects consist of 10 region-driven industry-academia cooperation projects and 10 interdisciplinary original-technology projects, with 2 billion won provided per project per year for up to six years.
Following the inauguration declaration that day, Vice Minister Ryu Je-myung personally presented selection plaques to the presidents of the participating universities. In a presentation on the theme ‘The Direction of University Education in the AI Era,’ Yonsei University President Yoon Dong-sup stressed the importance of education in which students go beyond using AI to discover and define worthwhile problems on their own and solve them together with industry, while Hallym University President Choi Yang-hee proposed that universities transform their very structure to fit the AI era — going beyond adding departments and courses to pursue interdisciplinary convergence, innovation in curricula and teaching methods, flexible academic structures, and cooperation with industry and local communities. The representatives of the Council of AI·SW-Focused Universities and the Council of AI Graduate Schools then declared joint cooperation to invigorate AI education exchange spanning the bachelor’s through master’s and doctoral levels and to hold regular exchanges by region.
Second Vice Minister Ryu Je-myung said, ‘Universities in the AI era must become engines of innovation that go beyond teaching AI to transform education itself to fit the AI era,’ adding, ‘I hope AI-Centered Universities and AX Graduate Schools will establish themselves as hubs of AI education innovation bridging universities and graduate schools, universities and industry, and the metropolitan and non-metropolitan regions.’ He continued, ‘The government will actively support university-led AI education innovation so that it leads to innovation across all of Korea.’
지역 홍보대사 신청 기자양성과정 신청 코리안투데이 지부장 신청 코리안투데이 인천강화
THE KOREAN TODAY × WIA CODE
이 기사의 WIA Code
WIA Code 스캐너로 비추면 인터넷 없이 발행 사실과 위·변조 여부를 확인할 수 있습니다.
휴대폰 기본 카메라로 찍으면 스캐너 안내 페이지가 열립니다 — 기사 바로 열기
움직이는 코드(스트림) 한 장에 기사 전문(사진 포함)이 담겨 있습니다 — WIA Code 스캐너로 약 35초 비추면 폰에 저장되어 인터넷 없이도 읽을 수 있습니다. Stream.mp4 도 여기서 받습니다.
WIA Code · 코리안투데이
Leave a Reply