By Cho Jin-seo
Staff Reporter
Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) was ranked 11th in the world and the first in Asia in the number of citations per research staff, which is a major indicator of academic competency.
The school received 95 points out of 100 in the list published by the Times and research firm QS. California Institute of Technology received a full 100 points on the top player in this category. POSTECH was 25th last year.
The citation index is obtained by dividing the number of references given to books, articles and other items published between 2002 and 2006 by the number of the school's research staff. It is one of the most widely recognized indicators of academic achievement.
Despite its high scholastic ability, Postech was only placed at 233rd in the overall university rankings, mainly because of its low international reputation.
``Since we focus on science and engineering, we have scored relatively low in PR and recruiting, which often depends on personal opinion,'' said POSTECH spokesperson Choi Hye-young. ``We are going to make more efforts in global PR.''
POSTECH is located in a suburb in Pohang city, North Gyeongsang Province, where the country's largest steel maker POSCO is based. POSCO supports more than half of its budget, and every student is receiving more than one scholarship from the school or the government. But its location is considered a big disadvantage in recruiting students who prefer to live close to Seoul.
As for the overall university rankings, South Korea had two top 200 performers ― Seoul National University (SNU) and Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). SNU was ranked at 51st place, up from 63rd last year, and KAIST's ranking soared from 198th to 132nd this year. SNU excelled in school reputation (peer review) criteria by taking 92 points out of 100, while KAIST did well in citations (85) and staff/student score (64).
``South Korea's emergence as a technology power is supported by the appearance here of KAIST, founded in 1971 in a deliberate attempt to create a Korean MIT,'' said Martin Ince, the editor of the rankings.
SNU, however, has shown that it is far from the global standard in opening its doors to foreign teachers, researchers and students. It scored 16 points in international staff and 24 points in international students, which was second from last and the last among the top 100 schools, respectively.
Overall, six of the top 10 universities were American schools, and four were from Britain. Harvard, Cambridge, Oxford, Yale and Imperial College London were the top five.