GIST is ranked fourth in the world and first in Korea in the index for citations per faculty, which is the source of the institution’s pride and status. Moreover, compared to other science and technology sources, GIST significantly surpasses its development objectives in various indicators.
Various university indicators
Every year, various educational institutions, educational evaluation institutions, and media companies create indicators based on different standards and announce university rankings and university evaluations.
JoongAng Ilbo university evaluation and CWUR university evaluation are examples of domestic university evaluations, while QS university evaluation and the world university evaluation are examples of international university evaluation.
Among the various university evaluation and indicators, GIST focuses on QS World University Evaluation, QS Asian University Evaluation, the Asian University Evaluation, and Nature Index – Academic Evaluation.
Particularly, GIST focuses on managing the ▲citations index per professor, ▲the number of papers per teacher, ▲the number of citations per thesis.
9th at engineering, 14th at natural science between Korea’s university
The JoongAng Ilbo University Evaluation is the first university evaluation among the university evaluations conducted in Korea. This evaluation consists of a comprehensive review and is for universities that has more than four of the following six categories: humanities, social studies, natural sciences, engineering, medicine, arts, and physical education. The evaluation is conducted in four categories: humanities, social studies, natural sciences, and engineering.
Science and technology-centered research universities, including GIST and POSTECH, are evaluated only in natural science and engineering among the comprehensive evaluations, which used 33 indicators totaling 300 points from 4 categories, including 95 points for teaching research, 95 points for educational conditions, 80 points for student education and performance, and 30 points for reputation. A series of evaluation was conducted by selecting indicators appropriate for each series among the comprehensive evaluation indicator list and adjusting the weights accordingly.
GIST was ranked ninth in the engineering category of the JoongAng Ilbo University Evaluation with 158 points out of 300. KAIST came in first with 206 points, POSTECH was second with 197 points, and UNIST was third with 175 points.
GIST was ranked 11th in the natural science category by the JoongAng Ilbo University Evaluation. In engineering and natural sciences, GIST’s scholarships and education costs for tuition were the nation’s best in terms of tuition, and professors’ profits from transferring technology to companies and others were also highly evaluated as the fourth largest in the country.
However, the main distinction between GIST and other science and technology institutions, especially UNIST, is that UNIST is the nation’s top engineering institution in terms of academic conditions. GIST student performance was also low at the 37th spot due to poor employment and job retention rates. The indicators for student education efforts and performance are low because the net employment rate, the employment retention rate, mid-term drop-out rate, foreign student mid-term drop-out rate, student start-up performance, start-up education time, and field practice rate have a significant influence. In addition, the index gave 40 points for UNIST and 35.76 points for KAIST out of 40 possible points, but GIST was ranked 14th with 22.76 points.
GIST’s QS evaluation
The QS is a university ranking published by Quacquarelli Symonds, a British university rating agency. This evaluation is made with indicators and weights of 40 points for academic assessment, 20 points for paper citations, 20 points for students per faculty, 10 points for graduate reputation, 5 points for foreign professors, and 5 points for international students. GIST was ranked 288 in the world with 36 points out of 100 possible points. KAIST was ranked 41, POSTECH was ranked 71, and UNIST was ranked 197. GIST was ranked 96 among Asian universities. GIST received 100 points for the number of citations per faculty in each index but only 14.5 points for student performance and 6.6 points for faculty performance. In addition, the student-to-faculty ratio received 39.2 points and 34.5 points for the international research network.
Every university indicator and ranking have their own strengths and weaknesses, so you should not blindly trust certain indicators. Nevertheless, various university indicators present the advantages and disadvantages of GIST and provide suggestions on how to move forward. The advantage of GIST is that, as everyone knows, its research results are excellent enough to publish many high-quality papers in journals with a very high citation index. However, the indicators show that GIST needs to improve its low reputation, increase exchanges with foreign institutions, and increase the number of faculty to receive better evaluations and to achieve GIST’s goals. Accepting various indicators and responding actively will brighten GIST’s future.
GIST’s response to and utilization of evaluations
For various indicators, GIST is monitored by the Office of International and Public Affairs. GIST pointed out that the employment and employee retention rates are disadvantageous due to the nature of science and technology and that it is difficult to do an industry-academic internship in the fourth year because of the lack of student employment programs. The poor performance of student indicators mentioned above is hence attributed to this factor. In addition, the employment rate index is a disadvantage because it is calculated based on employment among graduates, excluding advanced students, enlisted students, and international students, according to staff at the Section of Public Affairs. For example, KAIST, UNIST, and GIST were ranked 36, 37, and 38 out of 38 universities in the field of natural science, respectively, pointing out problems with the index itself.
According to GIST, if the data is insufficient or difficult to gather among employed, unemployed, jobless, or those employed overseas, the department in charge will continue to have graduates that cause statistical disadvantages. In addition, GIST is actively responding to the employment rate indicator because the data is based on graduates from two years ago. Due to the nature of employment statistics, which collect statistics after two years by providing employment services from 2021, the employment rate is expected to rise from the previous year’s evaluation.
Following the release of these statistics, GIST will report the data, establish improvement measures for deficiencies, and conduct discussions, according to Staff. For example, it is expected that GIST’s ranking will gradually rise by introducing the analysis tool, by presenting permanent and overseas promotional articles to enhance reputation, by attending seminars at university evaluation institutions, by sending GIST promotional emails to overseas researchers, and by operating university evaluation Task Forces.