The rankings of Pusan National University’s (PNU) five major academic disciplines—including arts and humanities, social sciences and business management, and engineering and technology—have dropped significantly compared to 2024 in the latest QS World University Rankings. In response to the evaluation that has regressed to levels seen three years ago, PNU has formed a task force (TF) to overhaul its performance management system.

According to a report compiled by Channel PNU on April 11th, PNU fell outside rankings for arts and humanities, social sciences and business management in the “2025 QS World University Rankings by Subject,” released last month by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), a UK-based university ranking agency. Engineering and technology ranked 451–500, life sciences and medicine 501–550, and natural sciences 385 respectively. These results are similar to or even lower than those of 2022, which was the second-lowest rankings in the past eight years—engineering and technology at 382, life sciences and medicine at 451–500, and natural sciences at 340.

Compared to 2024, rankings in  PNU’s five major disciplines saw a sharp decline. Arts and humanities, which scored 53.2 points last year (a drop of 6.9 points), and social sciences and business management, with 57.6 points (a drop of 1.9 points), both fell out of the top 550. Engineering and technology dropped 153 spots to 451–500, life sciences and medicine dropped 100  to 501–550, and natural sciences fell 101 to 385.

QS is considered one of the world’s top three university ranking agencies alongside ARWU and THE. Its rankings are widely known to influence a university’s brand value and are used as indicators in work visa or permanent residency applications in countries such as the UK, Canada, and Singapore. The QS evaluation criteria include academic reputation, alumni reputation, citations per paper, H-index (measuring researcher’s productivity and impact), and international research collaboration. The weight of each criterion depends on the field of study.

PNU cited a significant drops in its academic reputation scores as the main reason for the ranking decline. The university had previously performed remarkably well in reputation-related indicators, but this year’s scores showed a marked decrease. The scores are based on surveys of researchers regarding universities’ academic standing. This year, PNU’s scores fell drastically in all integrated subjects: arts and humanities dropped to 54.7 (a decrease of 14.8 points), life sciences and medicine to 52.4 (down by 9.4 points), and natural sciences to 61 (a drop of 8.7 points).  An official of PNU’s Head Offices stated, “These scores are generally higher for globally accessible universities conducting active international research. PNU faces limitations due to its geographic location.”

A shortage of internationally recognized research was also cited as a contributing factor. QS rankings improve when university researchers are publishing more in prestigious journals or receive more citations. However, according to QS data released as of June 4th, 2024, the number of citations per PNU faculty member was 19.5—far lower than top-tier universities such as POSTECH (96.9), KAIST (96.2), Seoul National University (71.7), and Korea University (45). This low citation index has been a persistent issue not only in QS rankings but also in other global rankings such as THE, as previously covered by Channel PNU on November 2nd, 2023.

The relatively low number of international students at PNU was also highlighted. While PNU ranked second nationwide in the number of students admitted through the government’s Global Korea Scholarship (GKS) program as of January, it was ranked 37th in the total number of international degree students as of April, 2024.

PNU attributes these challenges to the structural limitations faced by national flagship universities in regional areas. According to PNU’s Office of Research Affairs, information within the academic community tends to be shared first in the capital region, placing PNU at a disadvantage. The office also pointed out that PNU has the second-largest number of full-time faculty among national universities, which makes performance management more difficultJeong Won-Ho (Dean of Research Affairs, PNU) stated, “As a national university, we are obligated to support public scholarship, which limits our ability to be active on research. Besides, with such a large faculty, it is quite challenging to uniformly manage research outcomes.”

PNU announced its plan to gradually implement measures aimed at improving research quality. According to the Head Offices, a task force was formed last year by the Office of Planning to find the measures intended to strengthen research competitiveness. PNU plans to gradually implement them. Starting with an information session held for faculty and staff on March 18th, 2025, PNU will increase research funding for new professors and implement other related measures.  Director Jeong explained, “In the past, we focused on quantitative results, but we are now shifting our focus to emphasize qualitative research achievements in our promotion systems, research support, and incentive policies,” adding, “We are bolstering support for faculty who publish high-quality papers and considering long-term strategies for research performance management.”

To enhance PNU’s reputation, a social media-driven global PR strategy was also proposed. The plan includes actively promoting excellent research outcomes through PNU’s official LinkedIn account, a platform frequently used by academics. Major universities such as Seoul National University and Yonsei University are already managing their reputations by posting research-related content at least once a week on LinkedIn.

Reporter Jeong Su-Vin

Translated by Seo Yoo-Jung