Korea’s Pohang University of Science & Technology took the top spot on the rankings of the world’s top 100 universities under 50 years old by the Times Higher Education.

The London-based magazine on Thursday published the list featuring higher education institutions from 29 countries. POSTECH, founded in 1986, took the crown for the third straight year.

It was joined by a domestic peer Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology at No. 3, with Switzerland’s Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne separating the two Korean universities by taking the No. 2 spot. The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology was ranked fourth.

While Korea hosted the highest performances, the United Kingdom and Australia proved to be most prolific, each with 14 institutions in the list.

The methodology for evaluation was similar to those of Time’s world university rankings, but it has been recalibrated to reflect the fact that young institutions lack centuries of heritage and prestige, the magazine’s Fran Langdon said.

For example, the list put more emphasis on research and teaching categories, and less weight is put on reputation.

Phil Baty, an editor of the Times Higher Education rankings, noted that while Korea has only two representatives in the ranking, both are equally competing with centuries-old universities. This attests to the country’s effort in building top-notch institutes, he said.

“This success is testament to a passionate national commitment to education and to nurturing world-class universities to power the economy, as well as to the visionary leadership of two of the world’s most exciting higher education institutions,” Baty said.

The complete list can be seen at www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings.


By Yoon Min-sik
(minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)