KAIST jumped from 14th to 8th in the recently released QS Asia University Rankings 2023 that includes 760 universities, becoming the only Korean university among the Asian top 10. Quacquareli Symonds (QS) is a British company that specializes in analyzing universities across the globe, publishing several rankings each year including the World University Rankings, Graduate Employability Rankings, and Asia University Rankings.
KAIST’s impressive rise has been attributed to higher scores in five categories: academic reputation, alumni reputation, status of international cooperation, percentage of international students, and number of exchange students. KAIST has made over 500 agreements for international exchange and cooperation with nearly 300 institutions in 65 countries, including leading universities such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US) and ETH Zurich (Switzerland).
The first seven spots in the rankings all went to universities in China and Singapore, with Peking University (China) ranking first, National University of Singapore (Singapore) ranking second, and Tsinghua University (China) ranking third. Among Korean universities, Yonsei University, Korea University, and Seoul National University ranked 12th, 15th, and 17th, respectively.
In another reputed ranking, the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings for 2023, no Korean university was among the top 50, while SNU (56th) and Yonsei University (78th) were ranked higher than KAIST (91st). Various rankings differ in their choice of performance indicators (such as percentage of international students, faculty-to-students ratio, and the impact of recent research publications), importance attributed to each indicator, and their methods of assessment.
Nevertheless, KAIST has been ranked 42nd in the QS World University Rankings 2023, while SNU has been ranked much higher at 29th, the two being the only Korean universities in the global top 50. KAIST President Kwang Hyung Lee has expressed hope that KAIST will continue its rise from being one of the top 10 universities in Asia to being among the global top 10.