New indicators sharpen focus on quality over quantity in university globalization

Academics and industry observers said revision to The Korea Times University Rankings 2027 represent a meaningful step forward, with updated indicators that offer a more comprehensive measure of university internationalization.

This year’s revisions placed greater emphasis on faculty diversity, student success and sustained research collaboration.

Shin Jang-sup, a professor of economics at the National University of Singapore, said the overall framework has improved from last year, highlighting the addition of an indicator measuring the proportion of international full-time faculty, as well as changes to the international student retention indicator.

“Including the international student retention rate is a very desirable change,” Shin said. “It strengthens the rankings’ focus on evaluating universities from the perspective of international students.”

Seo Myeong-seok, managing director of the Korea Advancing Schools Foundation, also emphasized that the revisions have strengthened the overall framework.

He pointed to the introduction of the international full-time faculty ratio, the decision to limit key international student indicators such as retention to degree-seeking students and the expansion of the research assessment period from one year to three years.

“It is highly encouraging that the rankings now look beyond simply attracting international students to consider their retention and broader social impact,” Seo said. “This allows the assessment to reflect the full cycle of university internationalization.”

The rankings’ longer-term road map also drew positive responses as The Korea Times has outlined plans to introduce international student satisfaction surveys, measures of diversity in international research collaboration, expanded graduate student indicators and tracking of international graduates’ outcomes.

These changes reflect a broader shift in university internationalization, moving beyond recruitment numbers to place greater emphasis on the quality and outcomes of internationalization.

Sim Hwa-yong, CEO of international student services platform Hirediversity, said this year’s indicators are broadly aligned with changes in Korea’s immigration policy, which is increasingly focused on regional areas, long-term settlement and quality management.

He said the assessment could help turn competition over international student recruitment into “competition over the quality of settlement” as Korea enters an era of 250,000 international students, provided that remaining tasks — including graduate outcome data and measures of regional settlement — are addressed.

Still, experts identified areas where the rankings could be further improved.

Lim Woo-young, an economics professor at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, cautioned that giving greater weight to international faculty could inadvertently encourage universities to hire foreign teaching-only faculty who conduct little research.

“This would not necessarily be a positive development for internationalization,” Lim said, calling for safeguards against such incentives.

Lee Sang-hyuk, an assistant professor at Hansung University, also suggested eventually complementing the rankings’ largely quantitative framework with qualitative assessments of universities’ internationalization efforts.

Such additions of qualitative assessments could help capture aspects of internationalization that numerical indicators alone may miss, offering a fuller picture of universities’ efforts across education, research and campus life.