Suh Nam-pyo, president of Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, faces a cliff-hanger no-confidence vote by board members next week, the biggest crisis in the reformist educator’s checkered reign at the nation’s top science and engineering university.

“A motion to terminate president Suh’s contract was sent to the board Thursday and a vote is scheduled on June 20,” the Daejeon-based school said.

Board chairman Oh Myung is said to be leading the move to oust Suh who last year won a second four-year term despite opposition from some professors and students unhappy with his reform measures. 

Observers say that he stands a slim chance of survival this time, as critics outnumber allies in the school’s recently reshuffled board. Of the 15 board members, excluding Suh, only three are said to be supportive of the current president.

If the board votes to end Suh’s contract prematurely, he must leave the office after three months’ notice. He can claim payment for the remaining term of his contract, which amounts to about 800 million won ($700,000).

Since taking office in 2006, Suh has introduced a set of measures aimed at boosting the international competitiveness of KAIST, which, despite its unrivaled position domestically in the science and engineering fields, received little global recognition.

A professor emeritus at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the U.S., he wanted to model KAIST after M.I.T. and other world-class science and research universities.

Among his measures were strengthening tenure requirements for professors, withdrawing tuition-free status from underperforming students and mandating nearly all classes to be taught in English.

The measures shook the university to the core, where professors had been seldom fired and all students were exempt from tuition.

Calls for his resignation grew after four students and a professor committed suicide last year. Most recently, a KAIST student was found dead in April on the school campus in an apparent suicide. Critics say Suh’s reform measures resulted in excessive pressure on students and professors, which led to a rash of suicides.

It is not the first time that the university has become embroiled in internal conflicts over reform directions.

In 2006, Nobel Prize laureate in physics Robert B. Laughlin was ousted by the university’s board after two years of presidency. His drive to reform the KAIST faced strong resistance from professors and teachers who viewed them as being too radical. Suh succeeded the American scholar as president in July that year.

By Lee Sun-young (milaya@heraldcorp.com)