Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology

The Ranking of Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Korea

www.kaist.edu

KAIST (formerly known as Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) is a research university located in Daedeok Science Town, Daejeon, South Korea. KAIST was established in 1971 as the nation’s first graduate school specializing in science and engineering education and research. KAIST is the nation's leading science and technology institution and is considered to be the MIT of South Korea.

KAIST was founded with government funding and was initially staffed with a number of Korean engineering and science talents educated in the United States. From the onset, the emphasis has been in theoretical as well as applied research. KAIST continues to be Korea’s foremost center of strategic R&D projects. The University helped pioneer the establishment of competitive graduate school programs in Korea. The University’s some 400 faculty conducts research in cooperation with academics and industries all over the world. KAIST offers grants and fellowships to international students.

The President of KAIST, Nam Pyo Suh, is an authority in axiomatic design technology. Soon-Heung Chang, a nuclear scientist, serves as Provost and Ji-won Yang, a chemical engineer, as Vice President for external affairs.

The University has for many decades, recruited faculty from overseas. The current KAIST President Nam Pyo Suh taught for many years at MIT. His predecessor, Robert Laughlin, a Nobel Prize laureate and a physics professor from Stanford University, was the first foreigner to head a Korean university. Professor Emeritus Cho Jang Hee, was a dual professor at both Columbia, New York, and KAIS, and played major role in the development of the PET scanning technology.

The vast majority of professors come from US higher education institutions. The school engages in many international programs with leading European and Asian universities. The university is a member of LAOTSE, an international network of universities in Europe and Asia. It is also a member of the Association of East Asian Research Universities.

History

KAIST was established under the name of Korea Advanced Institute of Science (KAIS) under a special law in February 16, 1971, as the first research oriented graduate school in science and engineering in Korea. In 1989, KAIST established the education/research system of special talents in science and engineering fields in bachelor, master and doctoral degrees. Students accepted into the extrodinarly competitive program, were exempt from military duty, but required to remain in Korea for 5 years following graduation, to prevent brain drain. All other Koreans, of college age, are required to do military duty, unless they are in college, then they must report for military duty soon afterward.

Picture above: A Korean Scientist, Jang Young Sil

KAIST has led other colleges and research institutions in Korea and was verified by the ABET assessment (graduate course is within 10% of top US college level) in 1992, assessment of nationwide colleges by Joongang Ilbo (1995, 1998 ～ 2001, 2006 : First position, and assessment of Asian colleges by Asiaweek (1999 ～ 2000: Number one in science and technology), The Times of England (2006 : 37th of Top 100 world university in Technology) and others.

For the past 30 years, KAIST has produced 8,453 bachelors, 17,762 masters, 6,726 doctorate holders (doctors under 30 years of age were 2,920, 43.4%) giving a total of 32,941 alumni. The thesis published in SCI (US, Science and Technology Quotation Thesis Search) journals reached approximately 4 articles per each faculty member, and the commissioned research grant was approximately 200 million won per each facility, which is world-class level. The famous scientific publications such as「Nature」 (GB, July 1993) and 「Science」 (USA, October 1993) have assessed that, “KAIST has the potential to be the world best level education institution.”

It founded the National Nano Lab in 2002 and established the KAIST Institute in 2006.

The first act of President Suh upon his inauguration in July 2006 was to lay out the KAIST Development Plan. The ‘KAIST Development Five-Year Plan’ was finalized on February 5, 2007 by KAIST Steering Committee after a thorough examination. The goals of KAIST set by Suh are to become one of the best science and technology universities in the world, and to become one of the top-10 universities by 2011.

In January 2008, the university dropped its full name, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, and changed its official name to only KAIST.

Campus

KAIST is located in the Daedeok Research Complex in the city of Daejeon, 150 kilometers south of the capital Seoul. Daedeok is also home to some 50 public and private research institutes, universities and high-tech venture capital companies.

KAIST has two campuses in Daejeon and one campus in Seoul.

KAIST Daejeon campus (besides Daejeon Expo Park) has total twenty nine dormitories where all students wishing to reside can stay. Twenty three dormitories for male students and four dormitories for female students are located on the outskirts of the campus, and two apartments for married students are located outside the campus.

KAIST Daejeon campus (besides Munji-Dong) KAIST Information Technology Convergence Campus has total two dormitories.One for undergraduate students and the other for graduate students.

Seoul Campus is the home of Business Faculty of the university. Graduate school of finance, management and information & media management is located there. The total area of Seoul Campus is 413,346 m2. Its primary goal is to achieve an optimal combination of engineering and business studies which will make engineers more effective at their craft.

Library

KAIST digital science library was established in 1971 as KAIS library, and it went through a merge and separation process with KIST library. It merged with KIT in March 1990. A contemporary 5 story building was constructed as the main library, and it is being operated with an annex library. The library uses the American LC Classification Schedule.

KAIST always does its best to provide optimal facilities to create a cozy atmosphere where students can complete their courses satisfactorily.

Research

Seven KAIST Institutes (KIs) have been set up: the KI for the BioCentury, the KI for Information Technology Convergence, the KI for the Design of Complex Systems, the KI for Entertainment Engineering, the KI for the NanoCentury, the KI for Eco-Energy, and the KI for Urban Space and Systems. Each KI is operated as an independent research center at the level of a college, receiving support in terms of finance and facilities. KAIST is currently conducting research planned by the government and private businesses that are worth mounts as much as 100 billion won. In terms of ownership of intellectual property rights, KAIST holds 1,591 domestic patents and 500 international patents so far.

Academic Reputation

In the 2007 THES - QS World University Rankings - Technology, the University was placed 48th in the world and 1st in Korea. In the 2008 THES - QS World University Rankings, KAIST was placed 95th overall, 34th in Natural Science, and 46th in Technology. KAIST was again recognized as a number one University in Korea by Joong Angh Ill Bo Review. KAIST has also been listed in the top 60 Design Schools by Business Week. KAIST ranked the best university in Republic of Korea and the 7th university in Asia in the Top 100 Asian Universities list, the first regional ranking issued by The Times Higher Education(THE)-Quacquarelli Symonds(QS).

Academic Programs

College of Natual Science
College of Life Science and Bio Engineering
College of Engineering
College of Information Science & Technology
College of Cultural Science
College of Business
College of Interdisciplinary Studies

Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) was ranked 95th in the 2008 THES-QS World University Ranking.

Seoul National University

The Ranking of Seoul National University

http://www.useoul.edu/

Seoul National University (SNU), colloquially known in Korean as Seouldae (서울대), is a public research university located in Seoul, Republic of Korea, ranked 50th in the world and 8th in Asia by US News and World Report (citing a survey performed by QS top universities ), and 24th in the world in publications by the Science Citation Index. Founded in 1946, Seoul National University was the first national university in South Korea, and served as a model for the many national and public universities in the country. Seoul National University has been recognized for its leading role in Korean academia.

Throughout its history, Seoul National University has been regarded as the most eminent of all post-secondary educational institutions in South Korea. It is regarded as the most renowned university by the general public and recruits top-notch high school students.

Today Seoul National University comprises sixteen colleges and six professional schools, with a student body of about thirty-thousand. It has two campuses in Seoul: the main campus in Gwanak, and the medical campus (named Yeongeon Campus after its neighbourhood) in Jongno. SNU is notable for its "fleet-style" system, offering diplomas for virtually every academic field, from aerospace engineering to Western history.

History

Seoul National University was founded on August 22, 1946 by merging ten institutions of higher education around the Seoul area, pursuant to "The Law Concerning the Foundation of Seoul National University." The schools merged were: Kyŏngsŏng University, Kyŏngsŏng Colleges of Law, Industrial Engineering, Mining, Medicine, Economics, Dentistry, the Normal School, the Women's Normal School, and Suwon Agricultural College. The first president was Harry B. Ansted. For over a year and a half, there was a large protest movement by students and professors against the law of the US military government in Korea merging colleges. Finally, 320 professors were fired and more than 4950 students left the school.The university's second president was Lee Chunho (이춘호; 李春昊), who served beginning in October, 1947.


The college of law was founded by merging the law department of Kyŏngsŏng University with Kyŏngsŏng Law College. The university absorbed Seoul College of Pharmacy in September, 1950, as the College of Pharmacy. This had previously been a private institution.
During the Korean War, the university was temporarily merged with other universities in South Korea, located in Busan.

College of Medicine

Seoul National University Hospital and the College of Medicine trace their history to Gwanghyewon, also known as Jejungwon, which has been claimed as the first western medical institution in Korea, founded by royal support in 1885. This assertion has however been disputed by medical historians, as lacking any tangible evidence.[neutrality disputed]It is widely accepted that Gwanhyewon is instead a direct predecessor to Severance Hospital and Yonsei University's College of Medicine.It is suggested that Seoul National University Hospital and the College of Medicine are related, rather, to Daehan Hospital founded in 1907, which was supported by Japanese Resident-General Itō Hirobumi.

Relocation

Originally, the main campus (which embraced the College of Humanities and Sciences and College of Law was located on Daehangno (University Street) in Jongno. Most parts of the university relocated to a new campus in Gwanak in the period between 1975 and 1979. Part of the former main campus in Jongno is still used by the College of Medicine, the College of Dentistry and the College of Nursing and is now called Yeongeon Campus.

In 1975 the main campus of the university moved to the newly constructed Gwanak Campus.
2006 was the sixtieth anniversary of the university. In January, the university ambitiously announced a twenty-year vision to make Seoul National University a world-leading research based university.

Reputation

SNU graduates dominate South Korea's academics, government, politics and business. The concentration of SNU graduates in legal, official, and political circles is particularly high. Two-thirds of South Korean judges are SNU graduates, although the country's judicial appointment system is based solely on open competitive examinations. In government, slightly more than half of South Korea's elite career foreign service corps, recruited on the basis of a competitive higher diplomatic service exam, are from SNU. Similarly, among the high-ranking government officials who were recruited by an equally competitive higher civil service exam, SNU graduates take up more than 40 percent. On the political side, four out of seven presidential candidates in 2002 were SNU graduates. The school is also often criticized by some South Koreans for being elitist and bureaucratic.

Rankings

The Times Higher Education Supplement World University Rankings 2008 lists SNU at No. 50, going up one rank compared to being listed at No. 51 in 2007. In 2006, this university was listed at No. 63.The Shanghai Jiao Tong university ranking places Seoul National University at No. 164 which places more emphasis on publications in the area of natural sciences as well as on the number of alumni who became Nobel Prize winners. Seoul National also had the third highest number of students who went on to earn Ph.Ds in American institutions in 2006.

Academics

Undergraduate colleges

College of Humanities, College of Social Sciences, College of Natural Science,s College of Nursing College of Business Administration, College of Engineering, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, College of Fine Arts, College of Law (until 2008), College of Education, College of Human Ecology, College of Veterinary Medicine, College of Pharmacy (until 2008) College of Music, College of Medicine, College of Dentistry, College of Liberal Studies (started in 2008)

Graduate schools General programs

Graduate School of Humanities, Graduate School of Social Sciences, Graduate School of Natural Sciences, Graduate School of Engineering, Graduate School of Arts Graduate, School of Medicine Interdisciplinary Programs, Professional schools, Graduate School of Convergence Science Technology, Graduate School of Public Health, Graduate School of Public Administration Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Graduate School of International Studie,s Graduate School of Dentistry, Graduate School of Business.

Seoul National University was ranked 5oth in the 2008 THES-QS World University Ranking