6th Korean University Joins Global Top 100

Six Korean universities have made it into the top 100 in the latest global rankings by U.K. firm Quacquarelli Symonds out on Wednesday.

Although the number is the highest for Korea since the QS rankings started in 2003, none of their rankings are very impressive. The highest-ranked is Seoul National University at 37th, followed by Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology at 39th, Korea University at 69th, Pohang University of Science and Technology at 77th, Yonsei University at 85th and Sungkyunkwan University at 88th.

No Korean university has ever made it into the top 30 since 2003, though SNU managed to reach 31st place last year.

Five out of the six improved their rankings this year. KAIST rose two notches, while Korea University rose from 83rd.

POSTECH's ranking soared 10 notches, and Yonsei University, which ranked 104th in 2019, rose to join the top 100 this year. Sungkyunkwan University’s ranking increased for the third year running.

QS said 79 percent of Korean universities included in the rankings achieved higher scores than last year in terms of employer reputation.

Seven universities in Asia made the top 30. They were National University of Singapore (11th), Nanyang Technological University (13th), Tsinghua University (15th), Peking University (23rd), University of Hong Kong (22nd), Tokyo University (24th) and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (27th).

Experts said Korean universities need to boost the quality of their research and international reach to improve their rankings.