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[totoro]

It wouldn't surprise me that the best university in the world in 30-40 years from now will be a Chinese/Asian university.

In 30-40, or 300-400 years for that matter, the best university in the world will be either an ancient British university or an Ivy. To think otherwise is idiocy.

Will there be universities anything like we know them in 300-400 years? I doubt it. In 30-40 years I doubt it will be an Asian university either. I don't see Singapore or Hong Kong supporting the best university in the world and I don't see Japan going in that direction any time soon. China and India will still be relatively poor at at most 1/2 of income per capita in the developed countries. I think there will be a number of good Chinese universities but they won't be the best.

[thiuda]

Whether any individual institution is the best is pretty meaningless, I think. It's not about individual universities, but about the overall quality of education within a region. How about this: Within the next 20 years universities in Asia will continuously improve and many will be considered top universities, not just in Asia, but in Europe and North America as well. Specifically, in my opinion, more Korean universities will represented in the world wide top-200 rankings than are today.

[spyzowin]

It wouldn't surprise me that the best university in the world in 30-40 years from now will be a Chinese/Asian university.

In 30-40, or 300-400 years for that matter, the best university in the world will be either an ancient British university or an Ivy. To think otherwise is idiocy.

Will there be universities anything like we know them in 300-400 years? I doubt it. In 30-40 years I doubt it will be an Asian university either. I don't see Singapore or Hong Kong supporting the best university in the world and I don't see Japan going in that direction any time soon. China and India will still be relatively poor at at most 1/2 of income per capita in the developed countries. I think there will be a number of good Chinese universities but they won't be the best.

300-400 years is chump change for proper univerisities. They will be practically indistinguishable from their present day versions.

[sejong]

I'm doing my PhD at a tier-1 Korean university. I am one amongst a quickly growing cohort of international grad students, and am very satisfied with the level of instruction and support we receive. Lots of funding through the department and BK21, many opportunities for research, presenting at confs here in Seoul and publishing. Also, the research environment in Korea is very dynamic, so there are a lot of opportunities here for someone willing to work hard and do their best.

My two Won.

Unless you are doing something Korea-specific, please note that publications in proceedings of domestic conferences and in domestic journals are of little value outside Korea, especially if you have academic ambitions abroad (after obtaining your Ph.D.). The same holds currently true for publications in Japanese and Chinese journals, although some of them are indexed by SCI/E. You really need to aim at refereed publications in international conference proceedings and journals that are well-known in your research community.

In addition, Korean domestic journals do not have a strong reputation…:

http://www.nature.com/news/2008/081008/full/455715a.html

Also, an important difference exists between working hard and working smart, a distinction often not made and not appreciated in the Korean workplace and in Korean labs... A Ph.D. student typically needs to work both hard and smart.