UOS's Early Employment-Linked Contract Program Produces First 14 Master's Graduates, With 100% Employment Rate

[Financial News] The University of Seoul's graduate school program, the early employment-linked contract program, which is designed to cultivate company-tailored talent, has achieved a successful result by placing all of its first graduates at partner companies, with a 100% employment rate.
UOS said on the 26th that it produced 14 master's graduates from the first cohort of the Department of Biohealth and Eco-Convergence in the Graduate School of General Studies at the degree ceremony held on the 21st. All 14, the program's first graduates since the department was established in 2024, are now working at 11 participating companies.
Beyond simply combining employment and degree completion, all 14 graduates finished their master's theses through industry-academia research and development projects that addressed real technical challenges at their companies. The program has been praised for proving a virtuous cycle of hands-on talent development, from student selection and company hiring to graduate education, joint R&D, and thesis completion.
The research results were also directly linked to industry needs. Projects included biohealth research based on liquid biopsy, graphene-based transparent and flexible thin-film transistors, water quality control for treated wastewater, and gold-graphene hybrid electrodes for neural interfaces. In the bio, environment, and semiconductor fields, the cohort produced one journal publication and nine presentations at domestic and international academic conferences.
Graduate Kim Hyeong-jun, who works at Elpis Cell Therapeutics, said, "I was able to solve technical problems I faced at the company together with professors in the university lab and develop them into a thesis." He added, "The biggest advantage was being able to build both corporate experience and R&D capabilities at the same time, without having to choose between getting a job and going to graduate school."
Jeong Yeon-du, head of the UOS early employment-linked contract program project team, said, "The fact that students developed real industrial problems they encountered in the field into research topics and completed them as theses is a result that clearly sets this apart from conventional graduate education." He added, "We will continue to expand cooperation with companies in future strategic industries such as biohealth and semiconductors to systematically train advanced research talent."

[email protected] Kim Man-gi Reporter