According to the 2013-2014 ranking by the Times Higher Education (THE), Korea University (KU) ranked 206th. This was a leap from last year’s 239th place, and it was the biggest improvement among all of the universities in Korea.

 

The THE ranking is one of the world’s most well known rankings and it is based on five weighted factors—teaching (30 percent), international outlook (7.5 percent), industry income (2.5 percent), research (30 percent), and citations (30 percent). In these categories, various factors are considered. For example, in the teaching category, the learning environment is considered, while the research category takes volume, income, and reputation into account. KU managed to score higher in each of the categories, with the exception of research.

 

This year, the California Institute of Technology (CIT) ranked first with a total of 94.9 out of 100 in scoring. Universities such as Harvard, University of Oxford, and Stanford University followed consecutively in pursuit. Other Korean universities were also ranked in THE. Seoul National University (SNU) ranked 44th while Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) ranked 56th and 60th respectively. KU’s so-called "rival" school, Yonsei University (YU), placed 190th.

 

Although KU still has a long way to go compared with other Korean universities, it is nonetheless on its way of making itself into one of the best universities in the world.