Kaist maintains its No. 1 ranking

Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, better known to the public as Kaist, kept its No. 1 ranking for the third consecutive year, while Seoul National University and Postech switched places in the rankings this year.

The university rankings were conducted by the JoongAng Ilbo.

In the latest annual survey of universities nationwide, the JoongAng Ilbo reviewed 93 universities that provide four-year undergraduate programs, up from 88 in 2009.

Education conditions, globalization, faculty research and the schools’ social reputation as well as alumni networks were reviewed to calculate the overall rankings.

Eight officials from the Korea University Evaluation Association formed an advisory committee for the JoongAng Ilbo’s survey to create the evaluation criteria and scoring system.

Kaist faculty’s high research capabilities put the school at the top this year, while Postech led the evaluation on education conditions for students.

According to the survey, engineering and science professors at Postech wrote the most quoted papers last year, an average of 40 quotations for each professor. At Postech, 49 percent of the lectures were conducted in English.

The school also spent an average of 55 million won ($47,600) to educate each student, far higher than the overall average of 9.74 million won.

Rivals Yonsei and Korea Universities were ranked fourth and fifth this year, respectively, a reversal from the outcome last year.

The competition to gain admission to the top 10 was fierce, and Kyunghee University was ranked seventh, the highest ever for the institution since the survey was started in 1994.

The evaluation showed that Kyung Hee University’s international competitiveness was highly improved over the past year. The number of foreign faculty went up from 93 to 125, according to the survey.

The schools ranked between 10 and 20 changed quite a bit from last year. Ajou University’s ranking climbed from 18 to 13, while Sookmyung Women’s University rose from 30 to 19.

In specific evaluations, Korea University was ranked the top for its humanities and social science programs, while Seoul National University was ranked the first as a school that provides all academic disciplines.

The ranking of universities is intended to improve the competitiveness of Korean universities.

By Special Reporting Team [myoja@joongang.co.kr]