Why South Korean Universities Have Low International Rankings

Abstract

Although South Korea has the 14th largest economy in the world with a total GDP of $971,100,000,000(CIA, 2007:8) and with a per capita GDP of $24,800 (CIA, 2007:8), having received a GlobalCompetitiveness Index ranking of 11th place for the years 2007-2008 (GCI, 2007-2008), and a literacyrate of 97.9% for 15 year olds (CIA, 2007:5) with the country being ranked first in reading, fourth inmathematics and sixth in science proficiency, for the same age group, by The Programme forInternational Student Assessment – 2006 (PISA, 2006:47,53 & 20), the country can by no means boastabout the international rankings of its universities. For instance, the best Korean university (SeoulNational University) places 21st in Asia and 164th in the world according to the Shanghai Jiao TongRanking system (Figure 1), while receiving a ranking of 51st in the world according to the Times HigherEducation – QS world Universities Rankings 2007 (Figure 2).Sadly,