Dongguk University’s Department of English had been received the top tier rating in 2011 ChungAng Ilbo’s University rating. The English departments which received the same rate were ChungAng University, Sogang University, Ewha Women’s University, and KyungHee University International Campus.
The rating system was based on four broad categories: education environment, globalization, professors’ academic performance, and reputations of alumni. In order for Dongguk English Department to be selected as a top tier department, the combined scores of 12 specific criterions had to be within the top 2.28% range among Universities.
Besides the Department of English, most departments also received second tier and third tier. The departments which received second tier rate are following: Philosophy, Physics and Political Science. The third tier departments are Economics, History, Chemistry, Social Welfare (Gyeongju Campus), Social Studies, Statistics, Industrial Engineering and Japanese.
Upon hearing of the ratings, the internet has been buzzing with comments. One student said “English Department deserves the honor. It is the result of their efforts.”
Meanwhile, as hundreds of rankings of universities emerged, some criticizes their specialty. Some specific areas are missed on the evaluation systems, also some figures did not show properly measured. The rankings changed abruptly since newspapers set value of measurement differently.
And so, in evaluating internationalization measure, the system just counts the number of students sent to the foreign exchange students program. The size of program only matters in the system.
The newspapers rank the grade of universities and line them up by their grade. Lack of exact target whom to read, the newspaper just print the score of the grade, making social controversy issues.
An anonymous official of school administrations said that “According to the rankings, the school comprehends where the fields are strong and where the weaks are. Some weak figures will be improved as we try to support them.