The Rise of Seoul National University

One remarkable feature of the THES-QS world university rankings has been the rise of the Seoul National University (SNU) in the Republic of Korea from 118^th place in 2004 to 93^rd in 2005 and then to 63^rd in 2006. This made SNU the eleventh best university in Asia in 2006 and placed it well above any other Korean university.

This was accomplished in part by a rise in the peer review score from 39 to 43. Also, SNU scored 13 on the recruiter rating compared with zero in 2005. However, the most important factor seems to be an improvement in the faculty student score from 14 in 2005 to 57 in 2006

How did this happen? If we are to believe QS it was because of a remarkable expansion in the number of SNU’s faculty. In 2005 according to QS’s topgraduate site, SNU had a total of 31,509 students and 3,312 faculty or 9.51 students per faculty. In 2006, again according to QS, SNU had 30,120 students and 4,952 faculty, a ratio of 6.08. The numbers provided for students seem reasonable. SNU’s site refers to 28,074 students. It is not implausible that QS’s figures included some categories such as non-degree, part-time or off-campus students that were counted by SNU.

The number of faculty is, however, another matter. The SNU site refers to 28,074 students and 1,927 full time equivalent faculty members. There are also “1,947 staff members”. It is reasonable to assume that the latter are non-teaching staff such as technicians and librarians.

Further down, the SNU site things begin to get confusing. As of 1st April 2006, according to the site, there were 3,834 “teaching faculty” and 1, 947 “educational staff”. Presumably these are the same as the earlier 1, 947 “staff members.

The mystery now is how 1,927 full time equivalent faculty grew to 3,834 teaching faculty. The latter figure would seem to be completely wrong if only because one would expect teaching faculty to be fewer than total faculty.

Since 1,947 full time equivalent faculty plus 1,947 staff members adds up to 3,874, a little bit more than 3, 834, it could be that “faculty” and “staff” were combined to produce a total for “teaching faculty”.

Another oddity is that SNU has announced on this site that it has a student-faculty ration of 4.6. I am baffled how this particular statistic was arrived at.

QS should, I suppose, get some credit for not accepting this thoroughly implausible claim. It’s ratio of 6.08 is, however, only slightly better and seems dependent on accepting a figure of 4,952 faculty. Unless somebody has been fabricating data out of very thin air, the most plausible explanation I can think of is that QS constructed the faculty statistic from a source that did something like taking the already inflated number of teaching faculty and then added the professors. Perhaps the numbers were obtained in the course of a telephone conversation over a bad line.

And the real ratio? On the SNU site there is a "visual statistics page" that refers to 1,733 "faculty members" in 2006. This seems plausible. Also, just have a look at what the MBA Dauphine-Sorbonne-Renault programme, which has partnerships with Asian and Latin American universities, says:

"Founded in 1946, Seoul National University (SNU) marked the opening of the first national university in modern Korean history. As an indisputable leader of higher education in Korea, SNU has maintained the high standard of education in liberal arts and sciences. With outstanding cultural and recreational benefits, SNU offers a wide variety of entertainment opportunities in the college town of Kwanak and in the city of Seoul.
SNU began with one graduate school and nine colleges, and today SNU has 16 colleges, 3 specialized graduate schools , 1 graduate school, 93 research institutes, and other supporting facilities, which are distributed over 2 campuses.
Currently, SNU has a student enrollment of approximately 30,600 degree candidates, including 27,600 undergraduates and 3,000 graduates. Also SNU has approximately 700 foreign students from 70 different countries. Maintaining the faculty of student ratio of 1:20, over 1,544 faculty and around 30 foreign professors are devoted to teaching SNU students to become leaders in every sector of Korean Society.
With the ideal of liberal education and progressive visions for the 21st century, SNU will continue to take a leading position as the most prestigious, research-oriented academic university in South Korea. " (my italics)

A Student-faculty ratio of around 20 seems far more realistic than the 4.6 claimed by SNU or QS's 6.08. An explanation would seem to be in order from SNU and from QS.