POSTECH placed third again this year on 2020 World’s Best Small Universities list, recently released by the Times Higher Education (THE), a London-based leading publisher of higher education analysis and world university rankings.

THE announces world rankings annually for universities with fewer than 5,000 students. The identical 13 performance indicators across five categories are used for small-scale global university evaluation as the global university assessment including, teaching, research, citations, industry income and international outlook. However, this evaluation only includes small universities due to their nature that prioritizes quality over quantity and customized education, which is not properly reflected in conventional university evaluations.

Caltech placed first, followed by École Polytechnique and POSTECH placed third. POSTECH’s ranking is the highest among the Asian universities. POSTECH and UNIST are the only two universities from South Korea that placed within the top 10.

Caltech, which continues to rank first, is an American engineering university of the highest level, established in California in 1891. It has produced outstanding scientists and engineers, such as Charles Richter, the developer of Richter scale and faculty members, including Albert Einstein, Linus Pauling and Richard Feynman. It is the frontrunner among the small and strong universities.

École Polytechnique, in second place, is a leading university among France’s small elite educational institutions labeled ‘Grandes Écoles.’ It is the epicenter of French mathematics, science and engineering research and boasts 222 years of history and tradition. Three presidents, including Giscard d’Estaing, numerous senior officials and CEOs from major French companies have graduated from the university.

THE praised POSTECH highly for encouraging entrepreneurship by “providing students with entrepreneurship programs such as clubs for student startups, support for prospective entrepreneurs, patent training and leave of absence granted for students to launch startups.”