Sejong University (President Eom Jong-hwa) has secured 1st place among Korean universities in the 2025 edition of the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) Leiden Ranking (Open Edition). The university recorded a PP(top 10%) of 14.7% and a world-ranking of 129, thereby reaffirming its status as the nation’s top research university in terms of quality of publications.

The Leiden Ranking is published by CWTS at Leiden University (Netherlands) and evaluates universities solely on the “quality of publications”, excluding volume and reputation from its methodology.

Starting in 2025, the ranking is published in two editions: the Open Edition, which uses open data from the OpenAlex database and covers 2,831 universities worldwide; and the Traditional Edition, which is based on the Web of Science database and analyses 1,500 institutions.

Moreover, the ranking adopts two counting methods for co-authored papers: Fractional Counting (dividing credit by the number of co-authors and their affiliated institutions) and Full Counting (each co-author receives full credit).

Sejong University achieved domestic No. 1 in both counting methods for the Open Edition:

Fractional Counting: PP(top 10%) = 14.7 %, World Rank = 129.

Full Counting: PP(top 10%) = 18.7 %, World Rank = 62.

In the Traditional Edition, Sejong University recorded PP(top 10%) = 14.4 % (Full Counting) and thereby clinched the top domestic spot for three consecutive years.

Sejong also led the country in international collaboration for six consecutive years, recording a rate of 63.1%, with more than 60% in fields such as life sciences, mathematics & computer science, and social sciences—highlighting its robust global research network.

The university’s research prowess has been repeatedly affirmed by prestigious evaluation agencies: in the 2026 THE World University Rankings (Research Quality category), it placed first domestically for three years in a row, and it also ranked first among Korean universities in the proportion of top 1% cited papers in the National Research Foundation of Korea report covering 2013-2023.

President Eom Jong-hwa stated: “Our university has long incorporated faculty research performance into appointments and evaluations and actively supported publication in high-impact journals. The fact that Sejong University maintained top rankings under all criteria—Open Edition, Traditional Edition, Fractional Counting, and Full Counting—is objective proof of research-quality excellence. Going forward, we will expand a research ecosystem that delivers both academic distinction and societal contribution.”