South Korea's No. 2 University Dropped From World Rankings Over Bribery Suspicion

For the first time, a top Korean university has been eliminated from the QS World University Rankings.

PHOTO: KAIST

Confirming with the Korea JoongAng Daily recently, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) said that it has been removed from the QS World University Rankings in the UK for a year. "We were informed by QS in February that we will be removed from the rankings and will not appear in the rankings starting this June," a KAIST official said.

According to the QS World University Rankings 2025, KAIST is ranked 2nd in Korea and 53rd in the world. In the QS World University Rankings 2025, the university leads Korea in the field of technology and engineering at 24th place. Meanwhile, in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings (UK), KAIST is also ranked 2nd in Korea.

The decision to remove the department came after the school’s Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering sent an email to about 300 overseas university experts in November last year. In the email, the KAIST department offered to pay $100 to those who participated in a “QS survey” to provide information about the department’s reputation in the academic community, but did not provide details of the survey questions.

The incident came to public attention after Dr. V. Ramgopal Rao, Vice Chancellor of the Birla Institute of Technology and Science in Pilani, India, posted a screenshot of the email on LinkedIn. This quickly sparked controversy because academics play a major role in university rankings, and the employee responsible for sending the email resigned after the incident.

The email, believed to have been sent by KAIST staff to hundreds of overseas experts, offered to pay $100 after the experts completed two surveys.

PHOTO: LINKEDIN SCREENSHOT

KAIST later issued an official statement on the email incident on March 10, stressing that the university has not and will never attempt to influence university rankings through “inappropriate means.” The university further explained that the original purpose of the email was to ask for advice on how to operate the department and that the $100 was considered a “gift of appreciation” for the help.

The KAIST official also confirmed that the university has not paid any money related to the above allegations. The school’s Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering previously sent another email to experts apologizing for any possible misunderstandings. However, despite efforts to contact and explain, KAIST was eventually removed from the QS World University Rankings.

To prevent a similar incident from happening again, KAIST has also recently established a special committee on ethics management to ensure that future activities will be conducted with integrity. The school is also conducting an internal audit to further investigate the incident.

This is not the first time that Korean universities have had a dispute with QS. Previously in 2023, 52 universities in this country jointly established the University Ranking Forum of Korea (URFK) to protest against QS's new ranking method and announced their withdrawal from the organization's rankings until appropriate adjustments were made. The incident occurred after most universities in the land of kimchi dropped significantly in that year's ranking.

QS is one of the most prestigious, experienced and influential university ranking organizations in the world, along with the rankings of Times Higher Education (UK) and ShanghaiRanking Consultancy (China). QS started ranking universities in 2004, one year after the world first had a global ranking published by Shanghai Jiao Tong University (later ShanghaiRanking Consultancy).

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/dh-so-2-han-quoc-bi-loai-khoi-bang-xep-hang-the-gioi-vi-nghi-hoi-lo-18525032515390991.htm