High-ranking schools boast high-quality research in JoongAng humanities subject ranking
Published: 25 Nov. 2025, 19:57
Updated: 26 Nov. 2025, 09:26
![Professor Chun Jong-serl of the Department of Social Welfare at Ewha Womans University, left, demonstrates a virtual reality technology currently being developed in collaboration with the university’s Department of Artificial Intelligence at the Ewha-Samsung Education Culture Building on Nov. 24. [JOONGANG ILBO]](https://koreaseafood.online/data/photo/2025/11/26/16437c12-2bce-4aae-9fad-7597b59e66c3.jpg)
Professor Chun Jong-serl of the Department of Social Welfare at Ewha Womans University, left, demonstrates a virtual reality technology currently being developed in collaboration with the university’s Department of Artificial Intelligence at the Ewha-Samsung Education Culture Building on Nov. 24. [JOONGANG ILBO]
Professor Chun Jong-serl of Ewha Womans University’s Department of Social Welfare is currently absorbed in research on self-intervention tools based on virtual reality (VR) and chatbots for patients struggling with alcohol and drug addiction.
The idea is to maximize the effects of face-to-face counseling and psychotherapy by having patients watch preproduced VR videos or interact with chatbots.
According to the professor, such research is possible thanks to Ewha’s strong support for interdisciplinary studies. In 2021, she conducted a digital healthcare project as an internal research initiative, collaborating with the Department of Physics and the Department of Content Convergence.
Through this project, her team demonstrated the effectiveness of obesity management using smartphone apps and wearable devices. The physics department handled technologies analyzing body composition, and the content convergence department worked on motivating users through storytelling.
“We also plan to develop a chatbot and VR video content with the artificial intelligence department,” said Prof. Chun.
The JoongAng University Rankings by Subject were announced on Tuesday. In this inaugural field-specific evaluation, Ewha Womans University received an “excellent” rating in the social sciences and “exceptional” ratings in the humanities and business and economics. Universities that actively pursued interdisciplinary convergence and international joint research — built upon steady investment in foundational academic fields — earned high marks.
In the humanities and social sciences, Inha University, which received the highest “exceptional” rating, saw its 44 full-time humanities faculty secure a total of 3.26 billion won ($2.22 million) in external research grants last year, the second-highest amount per professor among evaluated institutions.
![Researchers from Korea University, Yonsei University and Hallym University discuss the future direction of the joint research projects along with the Inha University research team and the HK3.0 Consortium Project Team at a workshop held on Aug. 21 and 22. [INHA UNIVERSITY]](https://koreaseafood.online/data/photo/2025/11/26/104600e9-0120-44f2-8711-bc7519ee639c.jpg)
Researchers from Korea University, Yonsei University and Hallym University discuss the future direction of the joint research projects along with the Inha University research team and the HK3.0 Consortium Project Team at a workshop held on Aug. 21 and 22. [INHA UNIVERSITY]
The university's Institute of Korean Studies, led by Prof. Jeong Jong-hyun of the Department of Korean Language and Literature, was selected for the government’s “Humanities Korea 3.0” program and received 2.2 billion won in funding. Based on this support, the institute is conducting research on crisis responses to the digital revolution, climate change and super-aged societies, under the theme of “A Future Turn for Korean Humanities in an Era of Civilizational Transition” (translated).
At the University of Seoul, which ranked fourth in external funding per professor in the social sciences, the Department of Global Construction and the Department of Sustainable Urban Development attracted roughly 3 billion won in research funds through an official development assistance education program that brings public officials from developing countries to Korea for training.
Ajou University, rated “excellent” in both the humanities and social sciences, performed strongly in categories for scholarly publications. Last year, 35 full-time humanities faculty members published a total of 21 books, the second-highest among evaluated universities after Pukyong National University. Works such as “Art Museum Educators” (2024) by Prof. Ahn Ji-youn of Dasan University College were selected as “Sejong Books,” a title awarded by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Publication Industry Promotion Agency of Korea.
High-quality research was a common strength among top-rated universities.
At Pusan National University, 126 out of 338 papers, or 37.3 percent, published by business and economics faculty between 2020 and 2023 were counted among the top 10 percent of most cited papers, ranking second among 49 evaluated universities after Sejong University.
Chungnam National University ranked 13th and Kyungpook National University 14th on this metric.
Chonnam National University ranked second, Pusan National University fifth, Jeonbuk National University seventh and Kyungpook National University 11th in internal research fund investment, showing active institutional commitment to research. Universities with the highest citations per international publication were Soonchunhyang University, Kyung Hee University and Hanyang University.
Top-rated universities also showed strong student retention and satisfaction. Konkuk University, rated the highest in the humanities field, had a dropout rate of just 2.8 percent among humanities majors, the third lowest after Seoul National University and Inha University.
Chung-Ang University, also rated the highest, saw 222 of its 330 humanities graduates — excluding those already employed — secure jobs, achieving an employment rate of 67.3 percent, the fourth highest after Ajou University, Sogang University and Inha University. Its employment retention rate, or the percentage of graduates who remain employed for over one year, reached 82.8 percent, ranking seventh.
Evaluation criteria
The JoongAng University Rankings by Subject was introduced this year, coinciding with the JoongAng Ilbo's 60th anniversary and The JoongAng University Rankings' 33rd.
The JoongAng University Rankings 2025, which assesses universities across education, research, academic environment and reputation, will be announced on Wednesday.
Subject rankings were introduced because it became difficult to reflect a university's actual competitiveness as research and education became more specialized. The JoongAng University Rankings by Subject was the result of universities' specialization in specific fields, industrial shifts and the need to have different performance criteria for each discipline.
The subject rankings evaluate universities across nine fields: humanities; social sciences; business and economics; electronics and computer engineering; materials and chemical engineering; mechanical and mobility engineering; construction and systems engineering; mathematics and physics; and life sciences and chemistry. The categories are based on the Korean Educational Development Institute’s classifications and the way in which universities organize their departments and colleges.
The ranking was reviewed by an expert advisory committee comprising academics, researchers and industry specialists nominated by the National Research Foundation of Korea, the Korean Academy of Science and Technology and the Accreditation Board for Engineering Education of Korea.
Unlike The JoongAng University Rankings, the subject rankings focus on the actual education and research performance of each field. While there is some overlap in the rankings' criteria — such as research funding, paper citations and graduate employment rate — the subject rankings use indicators tailored to each discipline.
Data was provided by public sources, from the Korean Council for University Education to the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korean Standards Association, as well as academic databases, including Naver Scholytics and Clarivate.
The results were provided to all 67 evaluated universities.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY LEE HOO-YEON,HEO JEONG-WON AND OH SAM-GWON [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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