JoongAng Daily announced the 2014 “Science and Technology” Departmental Evaluation Report on Sep. 2, stating that POSTECH achieved Highest-distinction in the Dept. of Industrial and Management Engineering and Chemical Engineering. POSTCECH also received High-distinction in the Dept. of Physics and Electrical Engineering, excelling with flying colors.
POSTECH’s Department of Industrial and Management Engineering has received the Highest-distinction for five consecutive years, with the highest number of international journals issued per professor (1.04 journals per person) among 51 universities throughout Korea. This feat also applies to the Department of Chemical Engineering, having published 2.62 journals per person.
JoongAng Daily was the first newspaper in Korea to evaluate four-year Korean universities. (The evaluations started in 1994.)  Departmental Evaluation, in particular, assesses 15 to 20 departments in the fields of science and technology as well as humanities and social sciences in a separate report, aiming to deliver critical information to high-school students and their parents who are preparing for university applications.
Departments are scored based on the data obtained from Higher Education in Korea. After confirmation by respective universities regarding the scores, they are ranked into six classes. Only the top three classes (Highest distinction, High distinction and Distinction) are reported to the public.
Highest-distinction is rewarded to the department with the total score above two times the mean standard deviation of that department in all universities, whereas High-distinction is given to those with scores above the mean standard deviation.