KAIST

 Presidents and leaders of research universities participating in the 2008 International Presidential Forum on Global Research Universities (IPFGRU) held at the Westin Chosun Hotel in Seoul, Korea on Sept. 8, 2008 exchanged views and ideas on how to build and effectively utilize a global research network in order to increase cooperation and exchanges among institutions of science and technology across the world.

The participants agreed on the need to promote the sharing of expertise and facilities, conduct joint researches and positively implement dual degree, roaming professorship and other programs that help institutions in societies at different stages of scientific and technological development maximize the fruits of their research activities.

As a major goal, the participants agreed to create alliances for research and education that can become a new paradigm for global cooperation, with the outcome of discussions at the 2008 IPFGRU providing the guidelines for future endeavors in this direction.

Through the day-long symposium, participants reached general agreements on the following points:

--The concept of sharing faculty or roaming professorship should be actively promoted in order to accelerate global dissemination of academic expertise with the institutions and state authorities concerned easing existing restrictions to such arrangements and ensuring maximum academic freedom of professors involved.

--Dual degree programs especially those involving institutions of different countries need to be further encouraged in view of their benefits of resources sharing, expansion of knowledge and cultural exchanges and that educational authorities should try to remove various forms of limitations.

--As competitions over university ranking would grow intensive as institutions seek to attract better students and more donations, there is need to institutionalize a fairer, globally recognized national, regional and international assessment systems.

--In view of rapid expansion of interdisciplinary researches which calls for the sharing of facilities and expertise among different institutions, it is necessary to establish national or regional hubs to make state-of-the-art facilities and equipment available for researchers and research programs experiencing limitations in financial and material resources.

--National governments and political leaders should better recognize the importance of science and technology for societal and global prosperity and the science and technology community needs to make more communicative approaches to politicians so that greater trust may be built between them.

--Arrangements to conduct joint research involving international industries, academia and government should be accelerated with a view to addressing the common problems facing the mankind in the 21st century, including energy, environment, water, food and sustainability. The United Nations and other international organizations need to provide stronger support for research universities’ efforts in this direction.

--Research universities across the world should make concerted efforts to establish a global cooperative network that can facilitate the flow of information, resources and research personnel to realize universal advancement of science and technology and, ultimately, enhance the quality of human life.

Keynote speakers and panelists and the subjects of their presentations were:


   Participants" List