On September 16, the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) University Rankings were published, with KAIST placed 51st among the top universities worldwide. Having once been ranked outside the top 100, KAIST has been climbing the ladder ever since to reach its present position.

First compiled in 2004, the QS World University Rankings is a league table that annually ranks more than 800 universities around the world. The main objective of the rankings is to help students make informed comparisons among an innumerable number of universities. The assessment of universities is based on the six main indicators with different weightings - academic reputation accounts for 40% of the indicator, with faculty to student ratio accounting for 20%, employer reputation for 10%, citations per faculty for 20%, international student ratio for 5%, and international staff ratio for 5%.

According to the QS Rankings, “KAIST fosters the innovation and creativity of global ‘thought leaders’ who no longer abide by the boundaries between disciplines and departments, but instead work under the greater umbrella of interdisciplinary academic convergence.”

A total of three Korean universities, including KAIST, were ranked in the top 100. QS placed Seoul National University (SNU) at 31st and Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) at 86th. Yonsei University, Korea University, and Sungkyunkwan University made it into the top 200. The QS Asia University Rankings, extracted from the QS World University Rankings, put KAIST in 2nd place, with SNU and POSTECH placed 4th and 9th, respectively.

KAIST also received a positive evaluation in the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2014. Among the existing departments, the KAIST Department of Material Science and Engineering was placed at the highest at 16th, followed by the Department of Chemistry at 17th. The Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Mechanical Engineering were both ranked 21st.

President Sung Mo Kang remarked, “With the effort made by all members of the KAIST community, especially the faculty and students, we have received a good result in the global rankings. We will do our best to make KAIST one of the most sought-after, academically praised, and technologically innovative universities in the world.”