On September 16 QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) World University Rankings announced that Seoul National University (SNU) took 31st place in the QS World University Rankings this year.
A British company called Quacquarelli Symonds publishes the QS World University Rankings every year. Since its first publication in 2004, QS World University Rankings has been recognized as one of the most influential rankings of the top universities around the world.
2014 QS World University Rankings 2014/2015
| Rank | University |
|---|---|
| 1 | MIT |
| 2 | University of Cambridge |
| 3 | Imperial College London |
| 4 | Harvard University |
| 22 | National University of Singapore (NUS) |
| 28 | University of Hong Kong |
| 31 | Seoul National University |
| 31 | The University of Tokyo |
This year SNU ranked 31st place, which is its highest ranking so far. Last year the university ranked 35th place. This year SNU tied with the University of Tokyo, closing in on the slight gap that was present in the previous years. Furthermore, SNU ranks near the top 30 universities with some of the most prestigious universities in the world, such as the University of Manchester (30), the University of Melbourne (33), Northwestern University (34), and Ecole Polytechnique (35).
Other Korean universities that were included in the top 100 are KAIST (51) and POSTECH (86). These two universities have also moved up in the rankings compared to previous years.
In subject rankings, SNU moved up in four categories from 2013. In the subject of arts and humanities, SNU’s ranking increased from 82 to 38. For the category of engineering and technology, the ranking went up from 49 to 26. Another area in which SNU’s ranking saw a great increase was in the category of natural science from 52 to 24. Lastly, in the category of social sciences and management SNU’s ranking rose from 47 to 28.
SNU’s QS Rankings from 2004 to 2014
| Year | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2015 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SNU’s Rank | 118 | 93 | 63 | 51 | 50 | 47 | 50 | 42 | 37 | 35 | 31 |
The QS World University Rankings has an intricate system of evaluating universities. It has six criteria with different weights that are summed up to get the results. The six criteria are academic reputation (40%), citations per faculty member (20%), faculty-student ratio (20%), employer reputation (10%), international faculty ratio (5%), and international student ratio (5%).
In the past few years, SNU has been launching “the world-leading, research-centered university project.” The project includes attracting the world’s best-known scholars and promising young professors, providing funding for hopeful researchers, and training first-class global leaders. Seoul National University has experienced many improvements over the years. SNU’s ranking has increased 87 slots in the past ten years and is predicted to continue in the coming years.
Written by OH Jung Eun, SNU English Editor, josefinaoh@snu.ac.kr
Reviewed by Eli Park Sorensen, SNU Professor of Liberal Studies, eps7257@snu.ac.kr