(2020.7.20.)

President Kim Il Sung visited a factory one day in January 1951 during the Fatherland Liberation War.

He learned in detail about the situation of the factory, told the managers about the orientation and ways of the factory rehabilitation and took warm care of the life of the workers.

Learning that there was a shortage of managers and technicians as a result of the war, the President said that the problem of the national cadres, commanding officers of the revolution, was a vital issue related to the lasting prosperity of the country. Then he stressed that the factory had to train managerial cadres and technicians by itself.
He said that if a college was set up in the factory, the workers would be able to have lectures at night after manufacturing products during the day. Then, everyone would be able to learn and become excellent technicians without leaving from production, he said.

Being briefed on the college which had never been seen in any country in the world, officials were quite excited.
Looking round the officials, the President said: This is not an easy task as we are in the difficult situation because of the war. But I am sure we will be able to win the final victory of the war and restore the destroyed economy quickly after the war only when we train cadres and technicians from now on. He went to say: For the purpose of training national cadres we are going to recall some combatants from the front line and let them resume studies at colleges. We will also recall some workers who worked at this factory, and I propose to establish a college like a branch of Pyongyang University of Technology (the then name) so that they may learn while on the job. It was unimaginable to set up a factory college at a time when everything had to be mobilized for victory in the war, and summon combatants from the front to send them to the factory college at a time when even a soldier counted. 

It was the decision President Kim Il Sung alone could make, who maintained the policy of solving all problems arising in the revolution and construction from the Juche-based standpoint.

The President visited the factory again in order to establish a college there even in wartime, a college which was unprecedented in the world history of education. After learning in detail about its preparations he indicated the character of the college and took a measure to dispatch teachers—who were to be called back from the front— to the factory college preferentially.

Thanks to his far-sighted policy and energetic leadership, the first college of its kind in the world was founded on July 15, 1951 when a fierce war was at its height. It was the prototype of a study-while-you-work institution of higher education.