Ajou News

NEW Ajou University Ties for 8th Rank among Domestic Universities in THE World University Rankings 2022

  • 2021-11-16
  • 2233

Ajou University ranked in the 601-800 range in THE World University Rankings 2022. Ajou saw improved performance in all fields, including education and research, over last year and tied for 8th place among domestic universities.


Ajou University was recently included in the 601-800th rankings in the recently announced THE World University Rankings 2022. THE (Times Higher Education), a UK-based university assessment institution, annually publishes global university rankings along with QS (Quacquarelli Symonds). A total of 2112 universities from 99 countries took part in this year’s assessment.


THE published the rankings of the top 1662 universities according to its assessment. Ajou University ranked in the 601-800 tier, similar to last year. It is 8th among domestic universities.


Ajou University received scores in all assessment indicators that were higher than last year. THE uses 13 calibrated performance indicators in five sectors: Teaching, Research, Citations, International outlook, and Industry income. Ajou University’s performance saw particular improvement in Research and Citations.


The University has been aggressively working to secure leading faculty and strengthen its research abilities, including setting up an “Excellent Thesis Award” based on a quality assessment, increasing research funding for new faculty (up to KRW 100 million in science and engineering and up to KRW 50 million in humanities and social studies), evaluating professor performance using a research quality assessment, awarding research grants to post-doc researchers, inviting notable researchers to Ajou during academic seminars overseas, and other activities.


These efforts have led to tangible results, and Ajou University recorded KRW 3.35 billion in income from technology transfers last year, ranking it 7th in Korea, and multiples of the approximately KRW 710 million average income from technology transfers for domestic universities, according to the University Information Disclosure Services. Technology transfers are a major source of income and an indicator of research capacity for universities, where Ajou University has recorded a continuous rise for the past five years. Technology transfer income is revenue earned by the University for businesses to acquire the intellectual property rights to utilize the R&D results of university research teams.


THE evaluates universities on Teaching, Research, Citations, International outlook, and Industry income using thirteen performance indicators. In THE World University Rankings 2022, the University of Oxford ranked 1st, followed by Harvard University and California Institute of Technology (tied for 2nd), Stanford University (4th), and University of Cambridge and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (tied for 5th).


Ajou University continues to see good performance in world university rankings announced by global university assessment institutions. It was included in the 531-540 group in the QS World University Rankings 2022, climbing the rankings for three years in a row. In THE Asia University Rankings 2021, it jumped 49 spots from last year to rank 130.