Regional, smaller universities challenge hierarchy as globalization paths diverge

Some universities outside Seoul and the capital region demonstrated strong international competitiveness in specific areas in The Korea Times University Rankings 2027, despite the dominance of the country’s top-tier schools in the overall standings.

This indicates that universities are strengthening their international capabilities in different ways across areas such as student recruitment, educational environments, international research, student support and graduate outcomes.

Korea University, Seoul National University and Yonsei University — the country’s three leading institutions collectively known as “SKY” — held the top three spots in the overall top 30.

However, regional and smaller universities including Handong Global University, Incheon National University, Woosong University and Kyungsung University performed strongly in categories such as education, student support and graduate outcomes.

Handong Global University, based in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, stood out by ranking second in student support behind only Seoul National University, despite placing 23rd overall.

Incheon National University placed 19th overall but took fourth place in student support. Daejeon-based Woosong University ranked fourth in the education category, well above its 20th-place overall ranking.

Busan-based Kyungsung University ranked 50th overall but placed 10th in education. The University of Ulsan placed 11th and 13th in student support and graduate outcomes, respectively, compared with its 39th overall position.

These results suggest that a university’s internationalization performance should not be assessed solely on the basis of its overall ranking.

Rather, it is important to consider the strategies each university has adopted and the results it has achieved across individual areas.

The distinct strengths of universities across individual categories further highlight the importance of university-specific internationalization strategies.

The rankings evaluation covered 60 four-year universities nationwide, with a total of 200 points distributed across four categories: 70 for education, 50 for research, 40 for student support and 40 for graduate outcomes.

It was designed to help international students make informed choices about studying in Korea.

Woosong University rises to 4th in education

Major Seoul-based universities led the education category.

Korea University ranked first with 52.16 points, followed by Sungkyunkwan University with 51.43 points and Hanyang University with 49.16 points.

One exception was Woosong University, which claimed fourth place with 48.53 points. Yonsei University ranked fifth with 48.46 points.

The evaluation listed Sejong University sixth, Sogang University seventh, Sungshin Women’s University eighth, Dongguk University ninth and Kyungsung University 10th.

Universities were evaluated on seven indicators, including the ratio of exchange students to enrolled students, the ratio of international students to total enrollment, the diversity of international students’ nationalities, the proportion of international students meeting language proficiency requirements and the international student retention rate.

The proportion of foreign faculty members was added to this year’s assessment, strengthening the criteria for evaluating whether a university’s internationalization extends beyond its student population to its faculty and learning environment.

Rather than simply measuring how many international students a university has recruited, the assessment takes a comprehensive approach to determining whether it has created an educational environment where students from diverse backgrounds can successfully continue their studies.

It is noteworthy that Woosong University, Sungshin Women’s University and Kyungsung University each ranked higher in the education category than in the overall rankings.

Woosong University rose from 20th overall to fourth in education, while Kyungsung University climbed from 50th overall to 10th in education.

These results demonstrate that universities can perform strongly in the education category through strategies that differ from those based on research scale or alumni networks.

They also suggest that universities can improve their performance in this category, regardless of their overall ranking, by focusing on strategies such as attracting international students, helping them adapt to academic life, expanding student exchange programs and recruiting foreign faculty members.

Korea University tops research category

Korea University also claimed the top spot in the research category with 40.51 points, followed by Sejong University with 39.60 points and Sungkyunkwan University with 38.71 points.

Yonsei University and Seoul National University ranked fourth and fifth, respectively. Sixth place went to Kyung Hee University.

Hanyang University took seventh place and Hanyang University ERICA Campus eighth place, followed by Yeungnam University and Chung-Ang University.

Sejong University performed better in the research category than in the overall rankings, although it slipped one spot from last year’s top position.

Hanyang University ERICA Campus and Yeungnam University also ranked higher than their overall rankings of 16th and 29th, respectively.

This suggests that even universities that do not rank highly overall can still achieve strong results in research by focusing on research infrastructure, international collaborative research networks and strong publication performance in specific fields.

However, the research category recorded the largest gap among the four categories, with a 38.59-point difference between the highest and lowest scores. The category’s average score was just 44.6 percent of the maximum 50 points.

These figures indicate that international research capabilities remain relatively concentrated in a limited number of universities.

The research category takes into account the number of international research papers per faculty member, the proportion of internationally collaborative research papers, the Field-Weighted Citation Impact, the proportion of international papers published in the top 10 percent of academic journals and research funding.

By evaluating not only the volume of publications but also the intensity of international collaboration, citation impact, performance in high-quality journals and the research resources supporting these activities, the category most directly reflects each university’s long-term research ecosystem.

Handong Global University ranks 2nd in student support

Seoul National University claimed first place in the student support category, followed by Handong Global University and Yonsei University.

Incheon National University and Korea University ranked fourth and fifth, respectively.

Seoul National University of Science and Technology, the Catholic University of Korea, Inje University, the University of Seoul and Ewha Womans University made the top 10.

Handong Global University and Incheon National University stood out for ranking significantly higher than their overall standings of 23rd and 19th, underscoring their strength in student support regardless of university size or overall ranking.

This suggests that universities can strengthen their international competitiveness by focusing resources on student-centered support, such as scholarships, tuition assistance and housing, regardless of large-scale research achievements or traditional prestige.

The student support category evaluates educational expenditure per enrolled student, scholarships, donations and the proportion of international students accommodated in university dormitories.

Instead of simply measuring the number of international students, this category assesses whether universities have established financial and housing support systems that enable international students to study and live in a stable environment.

International students’ ability to remain enrolled and engage in the local community is critical to the sustainability of university internationalization. Thus, student support can be viewed as a foundation that underpins performance in the education category.

Seoul National University tops graduate outcomes

The country’s leading universities dominated the graduate outcomes and social impact category.

Seoul National University placed first, followed by Korea University and Yonsei University.

Sungkyunkwan University was fourth and Sogang University fifth. Hanyang University, Chung-Ang University, Ewha Womans University, Pusan National University and Dongguk University also ranked in the top 10.

Across the 60 universities, the average score stood at 12.85 out of 40, just 32.1 percent of the maximum — the lowest among the four categories. The wide disparity was also evident in the scores, which ranged from a high of 36.07 to just 2.40.

This suggests that employment and further education outcomes, alumni networks and social impact are achievements built over the long term through factors such as a university’s history, alumni base and graduates’ career and academic pathways.

For this reason, graduate outcomes and social impact cannot be significantly improved through short-term measures alone.

The graduate outcomes category evaluates employment and further education rates among graduates as well as their social impact.

Employment is measured separately through the overall employment rate and the sustained employment rate to reflect the continuity of employment, while social impact examines the influence of graduates across various fields, including politics, the economy, public administration, law and other professions.

As the category assesses whether internationalization-focused education and support during students’ university years translate into career outcomes and social contributions after graduation, it is the most outcome-oriented of the four categories.

Evaluating the outcomes of internationalization policies requires looking beyond short-term international student recruitment figures to the longer-term pathways that lead to graduates’ career development, settlement and participation in society.