TIMES HIGHER Education (THE) released its annual report this October, comparing the performance of universities around the world and placing Yonsei University 78th globally—making it the top private university in Asia[1]. Yonsei University was able to prove its perseverance throughout the pandemic and commitment to high quality education by being recognized as a leading university in various fields. Within just a year, Yonsei has significantly improved its positions on both overall and subject-specific rankings.

How the ranking works

   The THE rankings are based on how universities perform across 13 different performance indicators which can be grouped into five categories: Teaching, Research, Citations, International Outlook, and Industry Income. Different weights are given to each category in order to calculate the overall score. Teaching, which judges the learning environment, makes up 30% of the total score and includes performance indicators such as reputation surveys, staff-to-student ratio, and institutional income. Research comprises 30% of the total score as well and measures the research output, research income, and research productivity of the institution. Similarly, the Citations category constitutes 30% of the final score, and quantifies the influence of research produced by the university. International Outlook, making up 7.5% of the total score, takes into consideration the volume of research publications with international collaboration, as well as the proportion of international staff and students. And the last category, Industry Income, makes up the remaining 2.5% and measures how much businesses are willing to invest in the university’s research[1].

Yonsei’s efforts to improve in world rankings

   Last year, Yonsei ranked 151st in THE’s overall university rankings and only managed to rank first domestically in subject-specific rankings for Psychology. In a mere span of one year, Yonsei jumped to 78th in the general rankings, becoming the top private university in Asia. Additionally, it ranked first domestically in four subjects: Business and Economics, Social Sciences, Clinical and Health, and Psychology. Yonsei surpassed Seoul National University in Business and Economics by climbing up from 78th to 44th in the world rankings in this sector. As for the Clinical and Health category, Yonsei passed both Seoul National University and SungKyunKwan University to grab the first-place title domestically, increasing its world rank from 52nd to 32nd. Even for some of the fields that Yonsei did not rank first in within South Korea, there were, nevertheless, significant improvements in its standings. For example, in the Engineering subject ranking, Yonsei increased its position from placing between 150th and 126th to 58th, exceling past Korea University.

   In an interview with The Yonsei Annals, a representative from the strategy and evaluation management team at Yonsei University explained that, previously, the university had focused on developing in its own unique direction rather than setting out to meet the standards of external university evaluations. However, upon deciding that its falling international rankings could not be neglected, Yonsei has been trying to improve by carefully analyzing various evaluation indicators used by systems such as THE. Major policies regarding areas such as education, research, and industry-academic cooperation were designed to be naturally advantageous for university evaluations while aligning them with the university’s own long-term development plans.

   Yonsei’s overall score improvement can be attributed to the increase in scores for the Teaching, Research, and Citations categories[1]. The representative added that, as research is a critical factor in university evaluations that determines its Research and Citations scores, Yonsei has implemented diverse support systems to cultivate more skilled researchers and produce papers of excellent quality. Such systems include the Yonsei Signature Research Cluster Program introduced in 2021, which focuses on supporting highly competitive research fields such as energy materials and artificial intelligence. This program actively fosters the commitment of each researcher in all research cycles with the customization of support systems specifically suited to their project[2]. Additionally, various incentive systems have been strengthened to reward papers published in internationally recognized journals as well as those that are frequently cited in other publications.

   Yonsei has also concentrated on improving yet another major evaluation factor: its academic reputation. In 2017 Yonsei launched the Yonsei Frontier Lab, a research organization that actively supports joint research with recognized scholars from overseas universities while publicizing its prestige through alumni networks. This expansion and diversification of connections between partner universities has resulted in the stimulation of international research cooperation[2].

Students’ impressions of Yonsei’s rankings

   In an interview with the Annals, Ingrid Bale (Jr., UIC, International Studies) expressed that Yonsei’s improvement has made her proud of attending a university that does well in global rankings. She was especially impressed with how far Yonsei’s rankings have climbed from three years ago when she applied. As international students are not well-versed with universities in foreign countries, external university rankings are an important factor when determining which universities to attend. Bale herself relied on world university rankings when applying to universities and found out about Yonsei through this system.

   Seo Yun-min (Soph., Dept. of Business Admin.) also said that she felt delighted with Yonsei’s improvements in global rankings, as well as the School of Business’ reputation. This was especially because, previously, she believed Yonsei to be indifferent towards external evaluations and how students perceived them, and wished that it would improve in this aspect. However, Seo did raise doubts regarding how much of an impact Yonsei’s advancements in subject rankings will have on domestic high school students’ impressions of Yonsei and their consequent decisions on deciding between universities of similar reputations. As a high school student, she was unaware of global ranking systems and thus did not take them into account when deciding to come to Yonsei.

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   Yonsei’s efforts have certainly paid off with its phenomenal improvements in global rankings. Its climb to the top has not only instilled a sense of pride in the university administration but also the students. Yonsei will continue to adapt through unpredictable situations such as the pandemic and will boost its efforts so that the accomplishments of Yonsei students are recognized and appreciated internationally.

[1] Times Higher Education

[2] Yonsei University