Yonsei, Korea University accused of exploiting overseas scholar affiliations to boost rankings

Yonsei University and Korea University are facing scrutiny over reports that they recruited prolific overseas scholars with little academic engagement or residence in Korea in a bid to boost their respective positions in global university rankings, local media reported Monday.

Many foreign national scholars are listed on the faculty rosters of Korea’s two leading private universities, despite neither living nor teaching in the country, Yonhap News Agency reported, raising questions about whether the schools are taking advantage of a loophole in the multiple-affiliation system used by global ranking bodies.

Under the system used by ranking organizations such as QS World University Rankings and Times Higher Education, when a paper indexed in an academic database lists two or three institutional affiliations, each institution may count the paper toward its research output.

The report said some Korean universities were able to claim the work of foreign scholars by granting them faculty titles without requiring them to reside in Korea or teach on campus.

Yonsei University launched its Yonsei Frontier Lab program in 2017 to recruit prominent overseas scholars. The university reportedly offered incentives for foreign researchers to list Yonsei as an affiliation in published papers.

At the time, Yonsei referred to such papers as “joint affiliation” papers and suggested that researchers could receive separate publication incentives along with financial support of up to $30,000 under program guidelines. Researchers hired through the program published hundreds of papers over roughly six years, according to the report.

Yonsei’s QS ranking rose from outside the top 100 in 2018 to No. 70 in 2023.

A Yonsei official said the university had appointed overseas scholars as researchers during the COVID-19 pandemic, but ended contracts with about 14 scholars around August 2022, after concluding that the lack of substantive exchange could appear problematic.

The official added that Yonsei currently has no overseas researchers affiliated with the program.

The official also said the university provided only enough support to cover airfare and living expenses. The official denied ever asking scholars to list Yonsei as an affiliation in exchange.

Korea University launched a similar program called K-Club in 2023, recruiting about 150 foreign scholars. Its Times Higher Education ranking rose from outside the top 200 in 2024 to No. 156 in 2026.

An analysis of the Scopus database showed that of the 8,707 journal articles linked to Korea University last year, 1,011 involved 80 foreign visiting faculty members affiliated with its K-Club program.

This year, through mid-March, 317 of the university’s 2,536 published papers, or 12.5 percent, were attributed to K-Club scholars.

Most of the scholars were primarily affiliated with overseas universities and research institutions, not Korea University. After being appointed as visiting or specially appointed professors, they listed Korea University as a second or third affiliation on their papers, significantly boosting the university’s publication count.

One such scholar was Zahoor Ahmed, a Pakistani associate professor at Bahcesehir Cyprus University, who has published 136 papers on Scopus in the past seven years. As of March 2026, he has never worked on campus at Korea University.

The university said the program was intended to promote international joint research. However, only 8 percent of the roughly 1,600 papers that listed Korea University as an affiliation were co-authored with the university’s full-time faculty, the Scopus analysis showed.

Korea University said K-Club was designed as a performance-oriented remote research collaboration model, and substantive cooperation with its faculty was taking place.

"It is a trend to move toward a more flexible international cooperation system through internet video classes and seminars, and remote research," a Korea University official said, listing the Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US and the UK's Imperial College as global institutions that operate similar programs.

It added that approximately 19 percent of the 7,131 scholars named as "global top 1 percent researchers" by analytics firm Clarivate hold multiple affiliations.

It said about 70 K-Club scholars submitted joint research proposals with domestic faculty last year, with 21 teams selected for funding.

The university also said the low level of co-authorship reflected the time lag typical of international research, where papers often take time to publish, and rejected the characterization of the scholars as “ghost professors,” saying all appointments underwent proper review.

A Korea University official said constant residence in Korea or long-term in-person teaching should not be treated as the only measure of meaningful contribution.