North Korea’s government recently issued an order to major higher education institutions to submit proposals aimed at promoting cooperation with foreign universities, Daily NK has learned.
Speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons, a source in Kangwon Province told Daily NK on Wednesday that “last week, Wonsan University of Economics and several other major universities received an order from the Education Commission to raise the level of their educational guidance and scientific research to global standards by forging friendly ties with developed universities overseas.”
The order comes in response to instructions from the Central Committee’s Science and Education Department to accelerate the cultivation of “national talent” by increasing international academic exchanges and cooperation with foreign universities in line with the global move to relax restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the source, the government’s education commission ordered universities with pre-existing ties of cooperation with foreign universities – including Kim Il Sung University, Kim Chaek University of Technology, the Pyongyang University of Foreign Studies and Wonsan University of Economics – to submit written proposals to expand cooperation, while other major universities were told to submit proposals to open new pathways of cooperation with foreign universities.
The commission called on the schools to investigate whether leading foreign universities in sectors considered critical by the government – including economics, commerce, finance, information technology and international law – are interested in cooperation.
Through these efforts, North Korea appears intent in cultivating “global talent” by advancing the level of the country’s educational instruction and scientific research through expanding cooperation with foreign universities with certain specialties.
“The Workers’ Party stresses that it is of the utmost importance to cultivate core technical talent to contribute to developing the national economy as university students — the main players of the 21st century — receive guidance from professors and exhibit creativity in scientific research from an international perspective. Major universities are now concentrating on writing proposals aimed at expanding and creating new pathways for cooperation [with foreign universities],” the source said.
Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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