Pyongyang University of Science and Technology
by Richardson ~ July 13th, 2007. Filed under: Engagement, North Korea.Earlier reports in April on the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, or PUST, stated the new joint university would open in September 2007 with an initial class of 150 MBA students. If North Korea actually allows the project – financed by “unabashedly Christian” backers – to continue as planned, up to 2,600 undergraduate and graduate students will receive technical training, including from South Korean professors:
North Korea is set to take a potentially giant leap out of the intellectual cold with the construction of a new all-English language university staffed by academics from around the world and teaching the cream of the country’s graduate students.
Construction of the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology is nearing completion on a 100ha plot leased by the People’s Army in the North’s capital. The Army has loaned 800 solders to build the campus, which is largely funded by a network of Christian evangelicals.
[…]
The university is expected to eventually have 2600 undergraduate and postgraduate students and to help train a new generation of elite business executives and technicians.
[…]
Despite crumbling facilities, Pyongyang’s standards of computer science, software and applied mathematics are world-class, say experts, and its youth are bursting with pent-up business energy. The university is expected to generate spin-off businesses and eventually a Silicon Valley-style business park.
The PUST website is hosted in South Korea:
PUST is an experiment both bold and daunting: to determine if it is possible to train generations of North Korean students—heretofore shielded from almost all modern influences—in the technical skills and knowledge required to make positive contributions to a global community undergoing rapid and constant change.
While the skills to be taught are technical in nature, the spirit underlying this historic venture is unabashedly Christian.
[…]
As I write this, some signs of a possible thaw in North Korea’s relations with the outside world, especially the United States, have appeared. Yet ultimately, it is institutions like PUST that will accomplish the difficult task of bringing about a truly lasting peace—and prosperity—on the Korean peninsula, for these goals can be realized only when there is mutual trust and shared ways of looking at the world.
A bit more at Wikipedia.
July 14th, 2007 at 11:06 pm
Hmmm, a MBA from North Korea? There are times in life when you are just speechless and this is one of those times for me.
July 14th, 2007 at 11:24 pm
How about a Culinary Arts degree from Kim Il-sung University?
July 15th, 2007 at 12:55 am
Lol, thats not naengmyeon, its cardboard in cold beef broth.
July 15th, 2007 at 9:53 pm
SOME TIMES BOLD MEN STEP FORWARD FOR CONCEPTS SUCH AS GLOBAL PEACE AND CULTURAL UNDERSTANDING AND THIS TIME IS NOW FOR US AS AMERICANS AS WELL FOR NORTH AND SOUTH KOREA. LET US END THE COLD WAR NOW AND FOREVER FOR THE BENIFIT OF ALL AND UNITE THE “TWO” INTO ONE KOREAN NATION. I AM WILLING TO REACH OUT TO OUR NORTH KOREAN BROTHERS TO BRING THEM BACK TO THE FREEDOM THEY SUFFERED FOR FOR SO LONG AND SO RICHLY DESERVE. THEN WE CAN ALL WORK TOGETHER FOR A BETTER WORLD IN WORD AND DEED.
JAMES KELLER M.S.
July 15th, 2007 at 10:28 pm
Keller,
That sounds great. The main problem is that the North Korean leadership will never let that happen - this is why.
July 16th, 2007 at 9:33 pm
So while South Koreans are getting MBA’s from major American and European universities, North Korea is going to produce them at home. One wonders how they are going to entice the world class professors and business leaders crucial to such an effort to set up in Pyongyang. Of course, the bottom line is that they cannot. The graduates of “PUTZ U” are likely to be as unemployable as the majority of refugees who show up in (free) Korea.
July 16th, 2007 at 10:47 pm
Just when I thought the NY Times satisfied my needs for toilet paper, NK is now going to hand out MBA’s?
August 14th, 2007 at 9:18 am
Why the invective?
Here is a concrete example of DPRK making an effort in concert with US and ROK based groups to provide an educational basis for moving forward. People who deride DPRK often do so because DPRK is isolated. Yet when DPRK takes steps to engage the outside world, those same people make fun of those efforts.
Will an MBA graduate from P.U.S.T. qualify someone to run a major western corporation? Probably not, at least not for many years. But will it qualify someone to run a DPRK-based joint venture? Absolutely, and that seems to be the university’s goal. In fact, no one could be more qualified for such a position than an MBA graduate of a DPRK university.
August 14th, 2007 at 9:45 am
Brad,
Long-time North Korea watchers recognize this for what it actually is; North Korea allowing deluded South Koreans to throw cash at them.
I don’t think that’s accurate. The self-imposed isolation of North Korea is indeed a problem, but more in the human rights arena, and you leave off the more substantial issues; concentration camps, mass brain washing, inept management from the regime elite, nuclear brinksmanship, reneging on nearly every international/inter-Korea agreement ever concluded, etc.
An MBA after a lifetime of socialism and received in the North Korean environment will hardly be all that impressive. Yes, it is a step – a baby step. But to actually learn about business the students need to leave the mafioso-socialist business atmosphere of North Korea and get out into the real world.
August 14th, 2007 at 9:57 am
Hi Richardson
I understand your skepticism; it would be unrealistic not to be skeptical.
Yet, by the same token, I don’t think it advances any line of inquiry to make fun of new initiatives, as some people– not you– have done on this forum. If this project moves forward towards its stated goals, all the better. If it fails, it fails. But to dismiss what appears to be an effort to take a controlled step towards engagement without seeing the outcome of that effort seems counterproductive. I do leave off other issues, but not because they might or might not be issues, it’s just that they are other topics of discussion.
All I’m saing is let’s see what actually develops out of this program before judging it; I mean, the school isn’t even in session yet.
June 19th, 2008 at 9:43 am
I have a Master of Business and Administration I would like to study for a Phd. or a Doctoral Business and Administration. I am eligble for scholarship to study in countries outside my own country. This is a limited government grant. I could not find information about your international study programme so I need to ask if you have business and Administration studies at this level, thaught in english. What are the requirement to study in these programs. I also need to ask for how much the tution fee is and if it is any reduction for foreign students. I will study Globalization and Noth Korea is an excellent candidate for my research. I will to contribute to North Korean national economy with my research. My motivation is to find how can North Korean develop state owned and other businesses which can draw even more capital into your country and boost the North Korean economy further. I hope I can live up to your standards.
Best regards,
Frodo Floysand