POSTECH has been ranked as number two on 2017 Leiden Ranking, successfully retaining its high rank since 2012.
The Leiden Ranking is the academic ranking of world universities purely based on thesis papers that show the universities’ researching abilities. It focuses on the quality and quantitative ratio of thesis papers, and determines the ranking according to the ratio of top 10 percent of most quoted thesis papers out of the entire thesis papers published by a university. Even though it does not consider the size of the university or the entire number of thesis papers published, it is still significant in the context that it complements other academic rankings of world universities such as THE and QS that evaluates universities according to the quantity of thesis papers published.
POSTECH gained second place overall in South Korea this year, with 11.2 percent of thesis papers having the quotation rate of over 10 percent. This means one out of ten thesis papers are frequently quoted by other co-researchers around the world, gaining much attention from world academics. Followed by POSTECH were KAIST (11.1 percent), Ewha Womans University (8.0 percent), and Gwangju Institute of Science & Technology (8.0 percent).
In the world ranking, Rockefeller University gained the first place overall with its thesis paper ratio of 31.2 percent, followed by The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (25.0 percent), Harvard University (22.5 percent), and Stanford University (22.3 percent).
It is unfortunate that POSTECH ranked 392nd in the world ranking, much below the top five worldly ranking universities, but it is positive that the top ten percent of most quoted thesis papers out of the entire thesis papers published by POSTECH is continuously growing, as 11.2 percent in 2015, 11.6 percent in 2016, and around 12 percent in 2017.
POSTECH had been retaining its first place in South Korea for the Leiden Ranking since 2012, but was overtaken by Ulsan National Institute of Science & Technology in 2017 which currently has its top ten percent most quoted thesis paper ratio of 16.3 percent. Taking a long look, it is encouraged for POSTECH to press on harder to regain first place.