Ranking 6^th in “citations per faculty” of the QS World University Rankings
GIST’s research capability and research papers recognized worldwide

 

-GIST ranks 1^st among Asian universities in “citations per faculty” for 6 years in a row from 2008 to 2013

-Recognized as world-class research-oriented university …outstanding performances on faculty support, pursuit of excellence and students’ research participation

 

 

 

 

Gwangju Institute of Science Technology (GIST, President   Young Joon Kim) ranked 6^th in Citations per Faculty in the 2013 QS World University Rankings announced on September 10^th 2013, climbing one spot higher from 2012. (*QS: Quacquarelli Symonds)

 

The “6^th spot in the world” is the highest ranking ever achieved by GIST in the category of Citations per Faculty, breaking its previous record high set last year (the 7^th). GIST is the only university in Asia which made it to the list of top ten universities in this category for two years in a row and has ranked 1^st among Asian universities for 6 consecutive years since 2008.

 

In this category, Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel) came in first in the world, followed by California Technology Institute (Caltech), Rockefeller University, Harvard University and Stanford University (the US) in that order.

 

In the QS World University Rankings, Citations per Faculty is a category to assess not only research performance of universities but also the quality of research papers produced by their faculty members. More citations per faculty mean that the research outcomes of a university have considerable implications as much. 

 

“Citations per Faculty” is regarded as the most credible evaluation category in the QS World University Rankings in the point that the level of research quality, capabilities and implications of universities are shown in a more objective and precise manner, which compares to the “Reputation” category which has a room for subjectivity in assessment.

 

For evaluation in the “Citations per Faculty” category, QS checks the number of citations per faculty over the last 5 years by referring to Scopus which is the world’s largest database of research paper abstracts and citations.

 

GIST which celebrates the 20^th anniversary this year has put focus on hiring excellent professors and providing them with adequate support since its foundation. It also voluntarily introduced the most stringent and flexible institutional operation system in Korea from the outset.

 

All professors who newly join GIST are provided with a 200 million won grant from the school for the purpose of letting them establish a stable environment for teaching and research at an early stage. In addition, the GIST Senior Fellow program let professors who demonstrate outstanding research performance stay in school even after retirement so as to continue research and operate labs, as part of its utmost efforts to give motivations to researchers and provide due treatment and compensation comparable to research capabilities of faculty.

 

In evaluation of professors’ performance, one of key characteristics is that different weight (3%, 5%, 7%, 10%) is allocated to papers according to the rankings of SCI journals they were published by, in a bid to provide strong incentive to high-quality research outcomes.

 

GIST gives higher scores on papers where a professor participated as a leading author (corresponding author or first author) rather than a co-author in order to reflect the level of research participation in the evaluation of performance, and this has direct impact on the salary and employment contract renewal of professors in the following year.

 

While putting premium on effectiveness of evaluation, GIST also seeks to reflect different characteristics of different majors in evaluation and guarantee independent teaching activities by faculty. To that end, the so called “70:30 Rule” was introduced whereby professors decide on their own the percentage of an activity they are good at, either teaching, research or volunteering, up to 30% in evaluation for promotion.

 

GIST formulated an environment where undergraduates regard professors as their research partners and students in undergraduate/master’s/doctorate programs can actively participate in research, and provides them with opportunities to improve their capabilities. This provides one of the momentums that GIST’s research capabilities have garnered high evaluation in the international arena.

 

GIST makes sure all graduate students participate in research works so as to strike a balance between research and education, and give research grants, research/teaching assistants allowance and scholarships to all graduate students so that they can better concentrate on study.

 

On the back of such support systems, graduates from the doctorate program of GIST since 2005 had at least 6 research papers published by SCI journals on average before graduation. (Graduates from the doctorate program in Aug. 2013 had 6.53 papers on average published by SCI journals). In addition, the number of patent applications per student is 0.24, which is the highest in Korea.

 

GIST has maintained a tradition that all major subjects are taught in English since its foundation. This has provided a momentum that its students have shown good performances in making presentations at international conferences, having research papers published in science journals and writing theses in English.

 

GIST has pursued to provide best education to select few, making sure the ratio of professor to students does not exceed 1:10. Under that policy, GIST has built a science education & research system truly customized to select few by providing curriculum and support systems for students and professors differentiated from those of large universities. As a result, GIST now garners external recognition of its capabilities by ranking first in the ‘number of papers per professor published by SCI journals (1.32)’ and the ‘number of patent applications per professor (2.19).’  (according to information disclosures by universities in 2012)

 

President Kim Young-joon of GIST said “Even though GIST has a short history, it has grown into a university armed with world-class research capabilities based on competitive manpower, such as outstanding faculty, students with great potential and young administrative staff with expertise. Since its early days in history, GIST has made proactive responses to internal and external changes and that was the momentum to make GIST what it is today.”

 

He also said “GIST does not simply relish on what it has achieved so far. We will make utmost efforts to fulfill our responsibilities, which include basic & applied research, technology transfer, support for business start-up and cultivation of talented science workforce, so as to make sure science technology R&D will contribute to promoting happiness and welfare of people and development of the economy and industries.