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Seoul ranks first in QS Best Student Cities, a golden opportunity for Korean universities

Published: 05 Nov. 2025, 11:41 Updated: 05 Nov. 2025, 13:55

LEE TAE-HEE
[email protected]

Ben Sowter, Senior Vice President of QS Quacquarelli Symonds [QS QUACQUARELLI SYMONDS]

With Korea emerging as a major study-abroad destination, broadening English language offerings and more strategically communicating each university's achievements to overseas potential students could help strengthen its standing.

"Alternative study abroad destinations have an opportunity," said Ben Sowter, Senior Vice President of QS Quacquarelli Symonds, while visiting Seoul for the QS Higher Ed Summit: Asia Pacific 2025 at Korea University's campus in Seongbuk District, central Seoul. "The United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and the United States are all making themselves look less attractive for a variety of reasons."

"But our research suggests that there is no diminishment in demand for international study. Where is that demand going to go if it can't go to those places? It may go to Korea if Korea's offer is appealing."

Seoul topped the 2026 QS Best Student Cities ranking, with factors such as affordability, desirability and overall university rankings helping boost it to first place. Tokyo came in second, followed by London, Munich and Melbourne.

While interest in Korean culture has always attracted an increasing number of international students, it's now time for universities to find ways to strengthen their credibility and promote their achievements to an international audience.

"Figuring how to leverage that interest while sustaining credibility is important," said Ben Sowter. "It can be uncomfortable for universities to hook onto a celebrity-style endorsement and still maintain their central identity as an institution. So there needs to be a balance found now."

To discuss the competitiveness of Korean universities and QS's World University Rankings, Sowter sat down with the Korea JoongAng Daily for an interview during the higher education summit on Tuesday.

Below are edited excerpts from the interview, edited for length and clarity.

Ben Sowter, third from right, sits with opening ceremony speakers such as United Nations Eight Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Korea University President Kim Dong-one for the QS Higher Ed Summit: Asia Pacific 2025 on Nov. 4. [YONHAP]

Korea is rising as a popular study destination, although we see other Asian countries also gaining popularity. What can Korean universities do to become a more attractive study destination for international students?

First is socializing the strengths and assets of the place. Being no. 1 of the QS Best Student Cities Ranking doesn't hurt Seoul, although it may not help as much for other institutions in Korea. The government has also been trying to create more engagement and collaborations with institutions outside Seoul, and that can be a challenge. So, figuring out how to tell the story of a place in a meaningful and compelling way with respect to international students is important. In general, Korean universities are better at speaking to international audiences than Chinese and some Taiwanese universities. But there are still things they can learn. In China, there's a university that seems to have figured out how to more effectively communicate to the international audience through its website, and is considerably outperforming other universities in international research collaboration.

The next one is about leveraging the cultural assets the location has. Right now, Korea has a lot, whether it's "Parasite" (2019) winning the Oscar for Best Picture, Squid Game (2021-25), K-pop or K-cinema. There's also enormous interest in "Kpop Demon Hunters" even from children in the United Kingdom. But figuring out how to leverage that interest while sustaining credibility is important.

The final one is the ability to convincingly deliver programs in English. If we really want to scale up international engagement, it's unfortunately a necessity. You will have a small number of international students who are prepared to go on a language adventure, and Korea might appeal to them on that score. But to really build up volume, you have to not only be able to teach in English but also be able to teach well in English.

Students watch a performance at Korea University's International Students & Faculty Festival held on May 13. [NEWS1]

In the QS World University Rankings, one indicator that many Korean universities struggle with is the academic reputation indicator. What could be a way for institutions to increase their academic reputation?

One of the paradoxes is that a lot of academics, and a lot of university presidents who were once academics, intrinsically believe universities should just be allowed to get on with the good work they do and they shouldn't be encumbered at having to tell people about that. As a consequence, they tend not to communicate very well — in any language, and even less so in a language that isn't necessarily natural to them. It's basically about investing a bit more in the capabilities and strengths of universities and the communications department. It's also not enough to just take a Korean website and translate that into English. It has to be then translated into English that actually speaks to an international partner or an international student.

There are some exceptions, and I think Korea University is one, working hard on effectively communicating to international audiences. But for a lot of universities, I think actually just putting in basic efforts would be a good starting point.

The world university rankings' international student diversity indicator is currently unweighted, but relevant data is being collected. Does QS have plans to later introduce it to world rankings or Asia rankings?

Currently, based on our pilot investigation, we have no immediate plans to apply a weighting to that indicator in its current form. The data collection process was challenging, but we are interested in the topic. What we've been seeing is that some universities, mainly in Australia, Hong Kong and the United Kingdom, have become reliant on international students from a single source and do very well in the international student ratio indicator. But if you actually look at how international the experience is for anybody, the reality is that Chinese or Indian students hang out with other Chinese or Indian students. In some ways that makes the experience less international.

The idea behind the diversity indicator was to give institutions with smaller volumes but more diversity a chance to shine. The first round of data collection hasn't been promising in providing a pathway to do that clearly. I think we're going to have to take another look and see how we might achieve that through different means.

Where do you see Korean universities in the QS World University Rankings 10 years from now?

The higher up in the rankings you go, the harder it gets to go any higher. Can Seoul National University go a little higher? With the right focused investment, it could be a top 20 university in the not-too-distant future. The story of Korea in the past 50 years is remarkable, and its education system and universities have been a key part of that journey. The knowledge and research production at Korean universities is prodigious. The part of the problem with reputation isn't necessarily that there's a problem with reputation. It's that the research performance is so high that it makes the reputation look a little bit lower.

BY LEE TAE-HEE [[email protected]]