Seoul National University (SNU) became the nation’s first university to enter the top 30 in the QS World University Rankings. Achieving the highest ranking ever, SNU is now placed at the top of the list, along with the world’s most prestigious universities. It went one step further to achieve the feat of being selected as an awardee in the “Workplace of the Year” category at THE Awards Asia. 

01

Becoming Korea’s first university to advance to the top 30 in the QS World University Rankings 

SNU ranked 29th in the QS World University Rankings 2023 published this past June, becoming the nation’s first university to enter the top 30. Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) is a UK company that specializes in the analysis of higher education institutions around the world and publishes world university rankings annually based on its assessment across six indicators in four categories. This year, it published the rankings of 1,418 universities throughout the world, and SNU rose seven notches from last year to be placed 29th, achieving the highest ranking so far. In Asia, SNU elevated three spots from a year ago to be ranked 7th. Among domestic universities, SNU remains in first place. 

The QS methodology employs six indicators: academic reputation, citations per faculty, employer reputation, faculty-student ratio, international faculty ratio, and international student ratio. Except for citations per faculty, SNU saw its scores and rankings improve in all five indicators. In particular, academic reputation (98.6) and employer reputation (97.8) served as main contributors to a rise in the overall ranking. Despite a slight drop in ranking, citations per faculty actually increased from 456,740 last year to 533,037 this year. 

02

Strong performance in QS rankings by subject and QS graduate employability rankings

QS subdivides the five main categories of Arts and Humanities, Engineering and Technology, Life Science and Medicine, Natural Sciences, and Social Sciences & Management into 51 individual subjects and publishes its evaluation results. SNU was evaluated in 46 subjects, excluding mining and mineral engineering, oil engineering, anatomy and physiology, development science, and hotel and leisure management. Among the 46 subjects, SNU ranked in the top 20 in five subjects: sports-related studies (13), materials science (18), modern linguistics (19), social policy and administration (19), and pharmacy and pharmacology (20), improving from three subjects that were in the top 20 last year. Expanding the range, more subjects (33) ranked in the top 50 this year than last year. 

Furthermore, SNU was awarded “QS Recognition of Employability,” one of the categories of “QS Recognition of Excellent University,” which was launched this year. QS gave high recognition to SNU’s remarkable graduate employability and performance despite the tight job market. According to QS, it will introduce a new indicator of “Employment Outcomes,” designed to reflect the ability of institutions to ensure a high level of employability for their graduates, while also nurturing future leaders who go on to make an impact in their respective fields. 

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Awarded “Workplace of the Year” at THE Awards Asia

Recognizing the operational performance of the SNU Junior Board, promoted by the university for institutional innovation, THE Awards Asia 2022 selected SNU for the “Workplace of the Year” award. Since 2019, Times Higher Education (THE) has conducted an annual evaluation of Asian universities and awarded prizes to the best universities in ten institutional operation-related categories. This year, 22 Asian countries (about 500 competitors) participated in the event and a total of 80 nominees were selected at the end of last March. The announcement of the final 10 award-winning universities took place at the awards ceremony hosted by the THE Asia Universities Summit 2022 held in Japan on May 31, which was broadcast through THE’s YouTube channel. 

The award of “Workplace of the Year” is presented to a university dedicated to creating an employee-friendly work environment and culture. The SNU Junior Board, consisting of university staff in their 20s and 30s, was greatly appreciated for its efforts to actively address various university issues and build a streamlined network to facilitate communication among the employees. The SNU Junior Board, launched in April 2021, is composed of 15 MZ employees with less than 10 years of service. Some of their achievements merit praiseworthy attention, including nine campaigns waged to improve organizational culture and numerous innovative ideas such as co-mentoring, which invites juniors, seniors, and colleagues to work in partnerships to support and extend each other’s development. 

In addition to the category of “Workplace of the Year,” SNU was nominated for three other categories, two of which are “Leadership and Management Team of the Year” for establishing SNU Holdings and Ventures, and “Outstanding Support for Students” for hosting the 2021 DREAM ON, a metaverse career fair.