24-08-07 (Reported by Munhwa Daily Newspaper on Jul. 2, 2024)

Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Professor Hyukjae Lee, Director of Seoul National University’s (SNU’s) Inter-university Semiconductor Research Center

Short-term Effects on Science and Engineering Due to Increase in Medical School Enrollment Quota

Aftermath of Early Retirement During the IMF Remains

Until Recovery, Measures to Strengthen Workforces Gain Importance

Government Support Focuses on Strengthening Weaknesses

While Supporting the Expansion of Semiconductor Facilities,

Incentives for Technical Workforces Must Also Be Increased

The government and the medical community are currently at odds over the issue of expanding medical school quotas. Observing this situation, many engineering professors are concerned that if more top students choose to enter medical schools due to increased quotas, fewer students will strive to enter engineering schools. On the other hand, some professors believe that, in the long run, this will not significantly affect engineering school admissions. Nevertheless, it is expected that the number of top students entering science and engineering fields will decrease temporarily, posing a challenge for engineering schools to train the workforce needed by industries during this period.

In the 1980s, when I entered university, the entrance cut-off scores for departments such as Electronic Engineering, Computer Engineering, and Control and Instrumentation Engineering at Seoul National University were often higher than those for the Pre-Medical Department. However, after the financial crisis (IMF crisis) in the late 1990s, the popularity of the medical field increased due to its stability, while interest in science and engineering declined. This shift away from science and engineering has become a major cause of the workforce shortage in advanced technology fields such as semiconductors.

Another factor aggravating the workforce shortage in the semiconductor industry is the increasing number of employees moving abroad. The semiconductor industry believes that Micron, which used to be the third most competitive company in the memory semiconductor industry, has recently caught up with Korean companies partly because many of our workforce moved there. The reality is that it is not easy to prevent employees from moving to overseas companies that offer much higher salaries than domestic companies.

The government is also implementing various workforce development policies, such as increasing the quotas for semiconductor departments in universities, to address the shortage of semiconductor personnel. However, even with increased university quotas, there are limitations in obtaining high quality workforce, leading to cases where newly-established semiconductor departments fail to fill their admission quotas. This is because top students tend to prefer medical fields, leaving science and engineering fields relatively neglected. To fundamentally address national issues such as the neglect of science and engineering and overseas job transfers, it is essential to improve the treatment of technical personnel working domestically.

Recently, our government announced a 26 trillion won comprehensive support program for the semiconductor industry. This program includes low-interest loans, investment tax credits, investment fund creation, research and development (R&D) support, and infrastructure development such as power and water supply. Such government policy support is inevitable to compete with global companies abroad, as many governments worldwide are implementing even larger-scale support measures for the semiconductor industry.

Governments in various countries are directing their support to address their weaknesses. In the case of the United States, semiconductor design companies dominate the global market, but there is a shortage of semiconductor manufacturing facilities. Therefore, subsidies and additional financial support are provided to attract manufacturing facilities domestically. Conversely, the U.S. has many world-class companies in the semiconductor design field. The competitiveness of design companies comes from excellent talent, and since Silicon Valley companies attract many global talents with high salaries and good working environments, the U.S. government does not need to invest large-scale budgets in this area.

There is a need to adjust the direction of our government’s semiconductor support to suit our reality. Priority should be given to supporting the expansion of semiconductor manufacturing facilities, which require large-scale funding. Additionally, to address our weakness of workforce shortages, more proactive large-scale support measures are necessary. We have to consider providing direct benefits to the workforce in the semiconductor industry. Financial support, tax benefits, and infrastructure development could be provided to employees working in semiconductor companies, or support could be directed towards living facilities for them. Various measures can ensure that R&D support directly benefits the personnel involved in corporate technology development.

If such government support is provided through companies, it will help secure the workforce for those companies and avoid criticism of providing benefits solely to the companies. It is time for the government to actively consider strengthening support for technical personnel in the semiconductor industry, implementing policies suitable for the current situation of our country.

Professor Hyukjae Lee of SNU ECE Department

Source: https://munhwa.com/news/view.html?no=2024070201033011000002

Translated by: Jiyong Yoo, English Editor of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, cyoo7@snu.ac.kr