UNIST has been named the world’s 176th best university, according to the London-based Times Higher Education World University Rankings. The university also made a climb of one spot from last year to be ranked 6th nationally.
The 2021 rankings, released on the 2nd of September, is based on 13 carefully calibrated performance indicators, designed to capture the full range of universities actitivies. Those indicators cover teaching, research, citations, industry income, and international outlook.
For the first time since 2018, UNIST has entered the top 200 in the THE World University Rankings, having risen from last year’s ranking in the 201-250 band. The rankings also indicate that UNIST, when measured based on the number of citations a university’s research obtains, has maintained its position as South Korea’s top university and continues to be counted among the top universities in the world.
This year, only seven Korean universities have made the top 200 in the THE World University Rankngs. Heading the list is the Seoul National University at 60 on the list, followed by KAIST at 100, the Sungkyunkwan University at 101, POSTECH at 151, the Korea University at 167, UNIST at 176, and the Yonsei University at 187.
In this year’s THE global rankings, UNIST obtained highest scores in citations and industry income, thus demonstrated its strong research influence. As shown above, UNIST scored 34.9 points in teaching: the learning environment (27.8 points in 2020), 40.7 points in research: volume, income, and reputation (38.6 points in 2020), 90.8 points in citations (96.3 points in 2020), 85.3 points in industry income: knowledge transfer (80.5 points in 2020), and 49.1 in international outlook: percentage of international staffs, students, and coauthorship (51.9 points in 2020). When compared to last year’s rankings, all indicators have shown a significant increase, except citations and international outlook.
“We will strive to foster future talents and develop cutting-edge science and technology through research and education that will lead the world in scientific and technological innovation,” says President Yong Hoon Lee of UNIST.
For the fifth consecutive year, the University of Oxford has been named the best university in the world. Stanford University, California Institute of Technology, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) followed. The University of Cambridge, the University of California—Berkeley, Yale University, Princeton University, and the University of Chicago were also made it into the top 10 in the 2021 edition of the THE World University Rankings.
