This year, 29 Korean universities ranked in the list of ‘2019 THE World University Rankings’ and there are a total of five schools in the top 200 universities in the world: Seoul National University, Sungkyunkwan University, KAIST, POSTECH, and Korea University. 

Sungkyunkwan University, which can be called the "best star" in this ranking, showed an impressive rise of 29 steps from last year and placed 82nd. Sungkyunkwan University not only joined the top 100 in the global rankings for the first time, but also placed 2nd in Korea. Last year, SKKU was ranked 3rd overall after KAIST, but it has overtaken KAIST and became the top private university in Korea.

Sungkyunkwan University has achieved a remarkable development this year followed by the huge rise of 26 steps last year. "Sungkyunkwan University has been focusing to create synergy effect through mutual growth of education and research by supporting the convergence research for the early connected society since several years ago and introducing world-class education system by recruiting famous scholars as professors” said Sung Jin SONG, Vice-President of the Planning and Coordination Division at Sungkyunkwan University. “We will continue to invest and support to become a world-class university in the future.”

In fact, Sungkyunkwan University creates synergies by inviting top-level researchers and providing an environment where they can focus on research. The results of international SCI papers have increased dramatically from 2,782 in 2010 to 4841 in 2016, making it a top 100 in the world. The amount of research funding also rose from 201.9 billion won in 2010 to 350.1 billion won in 2017. In particular, last year, the index of international papers cited by professor was 2.26, which is the highest in Korea as well as in the world.