A letter from Simon Park in Korea
December 2011 (2)
Teaching at the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST)
Simon went to Pyongyang at the invitation of PUST to teach an intensive course in financial management. Spouse visas are only a recent development and Haejung went to keep an eye on Simon and the other eye on North Korea. (Just a joke, Haejung.) A brief introduction to PUST is borrowed from a faculty recruitment letter:
Pyongyang University of Science & Technology (PUST), located in Pyongyang, DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea), is jointly operated by the DPRK and an international foundation (the Northeast Asia Foundation for Education and Culture). PUST offers both undergraduate and graduate programs to DPRK students in a fully English-speaking environment in the fields of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), Agriculture and Life Sciences (ALS) and International Finance and Management (IFM). Qualified applicants should hold a Ph.D. or an equivalent degree with a proven record of teaching and research experience. In addition, qualified and experienced English teachers are needed to provide general English courses, which all students are required to take prior to starting their major courses. (Hot off the presses an article about PUST in the Science magazine by Richard Stone.)
PUST was specifically requested and endorsed by Kim Jong Il and enjoys special privileges as the only “international university” in North Korea. But this letter is about our personal experiences on the academic side. Apparently my intensive course was not pre-approved by the North Korea authorities and we found that a series of non-credit special lectures were the best we could do. It turned out to be a blessing for us as we had free time to visit places (in another letter, we promise).
Simon (center) with International Financial Management students
I was to give a series of six lectures to graduate students in the International Financial Management track (see photo). These students are graduates of the most prestigious universities in DPRK, most of them from the Kim IL Sung University in Pyongyang. I asked what subjects or topics they would like to cover during the six lectures. Knowing that they grew up in a socialist economy and their understanding of market economy would not be well rounded, I wanted to fill in the gaps. The students were alert and cooperative, but did not offer any suggestions. After a while it dawned on me that the students did not know what they didn’t know. It was natural that they would not know where the holes in their studies were. And since their studies were so uniform, so were the gaps. We worked together to lay a more sound foundation for their studies, but it may not have made any meaningful differences. At the invitation of the DPRK academic vice president, I shared the following evaluation of the students.
All the students were highly motivated and participated eagerly. They learned quickly and were well prepared in specific areas, but were lacking in their ability to build bridges across the gaps for which they had little exposure. That is, they were not able to draw inferences by connecting dots they knew and make educated guesses as to the missing dots.
As a consequence, they made statements and conclusions that are not internally consistent. Students everywhere make these mistakes, but given the raw caliber of PUST students this kind of mistakes should be rare. Furthermore, the ability to apply and extend their knowledge beyond what they know already is an important ingredient of independent research in the field, perhaps more than most.
Building on their high motivation and superior intellect, a course or two covering the macro view of the field and key analytical tools would greatly enhance their ability to absorb new information and to do quality research.
I also noticed that they had difficulty in searching for and using information to formulate loosely defined questions into research questions. PUST graduate students have one major tool that their colleagues at other institutions do not have: the Internet. I wanted to demonstrate using the search engines to find information to formulate and answer questions. I requested, through the proper channels, to do a live Internet demonstration during class. To the surprise of many, the authorities granted permission. Since the classroom was not wired for the Internet, I set up the equipment in my office and had a successful dry run. In the morning of the final lecture, I invited the students into my office for this history-making session. As usual, the students were early for the 8 a.m. class, but just before we got started the electricity went out at 7:56. The light came back on for three minutes during the 90-minute session. We worked with screen-shot handouts I had prepared and a blank screen. But all was not in vain. Imagine what might happen next semester, if the Internet use in class is routinely requested and granted. Perhaps the session was indeed history-making.
These changes do not come often. PUST is peeling back the heavy curtain on the window to the world, an inch at a time to a few selected eyes. I hope and pray that in 15 years the students I worked with will be leading the country and interacting with the world. They have the desire and the raw capacity. I hope I added a bit to their journey, personally as well as for their society. PUST has many obstacles to overcome, but the journey is too important to give up, both for us who are helping and for the people of North Korea. Kim Jong Il knew that; I hope his successor does as well.
Next we will share stories about daily life on campus.
Simon & Haejung
The 2012 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 196
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