In the QS World University Rankings 2014 released on September 16, GIST (President: Young Joon Kim) was placed at No. 4 in citations per faculty, up two notches from No. 6 in 2013. The top-ten list in the same category included such renowned names as Caltech (No. 1), Harvard (No. 3), Stanford (No. 8) and MIT (No. 10).

The fourth place is the highest ever taken by GIST, which first entered the rankings in 2008 as No. 15 and has steadily climbed up the list since. Citations per faculty is an index widely viewed as an objective measure of research excellence, in terms of both quality and quantity.

GIST President Young Joon Kim said, “We have made this remarkable achievement by working hard to raise the quality of our research. At the same time, we are working hard to attain educational excellence as well.” “In particular, GIST College will focus on cultivating elite scientists and engineers with a robust humanities background under a liberal arts college system,” he added.

The UK-based QS has been announcing world university rankings since 2004 in six categories, including academic reputation, employer reputation, faculty/student ratio, citations per faculty, international faculty, and international students. This year, about 3,000 institutions of higher learning around the world were evaluated by QS.