In the 2009 Times Higher Education - QS World University Ranking, Seoul National University placed 47th.

This is three slots up from last year's ranking, as SNU has consistently risen in position for the past 5 years in a row.

In the 'peer review' survey conducted among 6,000 world scholars, it placed 25th, reflecting its heightened reputation in the academic community.

However, in the 'employers' review' conducted by global corporations, it was ranked 125th.

Looking more closely at the evaluation of separate fields, Life Sciences & Biomedicine ranked 24th, IT & Engineering 27th, Natural Sciences 28th, Social Sciences 30th and 33rd in the Arts & Humanities, ranking around 30th across the board.

The overall evaluation was based on academic peer review (40%), employer review (10%), faculty-student ratio (20%), research performance (20%), and internationalization (10% ).

The evaluations of the separate academic fields were based on reputation in the academic community along with the number of citations per paper produced.

In this year’s evaluation, Harvard University sustained its lead, and of the Asian universities, Tokyo University (22nd) ranked highest.

Domestic universities such as KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, 69th), POSTECH (134th), Yonsei University (151th) and Korea University (211th) followed.

October 9, 2009
SNU PR Office