“At the top for the second year in a row: South Korea’s Pohang University of Science and Technology, which is just 27 years old. POSTECH has received substantial financial support from POSCO, a major Korean steel company also located in Pohang.” Forbes, an American business magazine that features original articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics, reported that news of admiration on Jun. 19. In addition, The Guardian (British daily newspaper) and International Herald Tribune (a part of The New York Times) covered the news demonstrating the superiority of POSTECH. By ranking number one again in the Times Higher Education ranking of the “100 best universities under the age of 50,”POSTECH proved itself as a world class university once again. This ranking used the same indicators to rate institutions as the overall World University Rankings.
Teaching, Research, and Citations each determined 30% of the overall ranking. International outlook, which represents the reputation in the world and degree of globalization, took 7.5%. Finally, the last 2.5% of the score is from industry income. It assesses participation of the university in development of Industry and how much business supports research. Compared to most universities, POSTECH showed superiority in Teaching, Research, and Industry Income from Industry categories. POSTECH got perfect scores in industry income. With an overall score of 75.0, POSTECH was listed as the first among world universities under 50.
Swiss University, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne followed in second place (overall score: 71.9) and POSTECH’s national rival, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), rose from fifth to third (67.4), while the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology dropped one place to fourth (65.7).
Overall, the UK still has the most representatives in THE’s list, with 18 in the top 100 institutions. This is down from 20 last year, although one of 2012’s entrants  Keele University is now too old to be included in the ranking.
Other strong national systems include Australia (13 institutions), the US (eight), France (seven), Spain (six) and Taiwan (five).
Phil Baty, editor of Times Higher Education Rankings, emphasized “South Korea’s first and third place spots make it the “star” of this year’s list. South Korea’s experience shows that it is possible for nations with sufficient political will to build in a relatively short time world-class universities that can compete with the traditional elites in the US and the UK.”