Kookmin University (President Jung Seung-ryul) has been ranked 13th overall in the 2024 JoongAng Ilbo University Rankings. This is the highest ranking since the evaluation began, up three spots from last year's 16th place.

Based on its entrepreneurship DNA formed by an educational philosophy that combines community spirit and pragmatism, KU's goal of fostering practical talents needed for society led to good performance in all areas of the evaluation. The JoongAng Ilbo university evaluation was conducted in four categories: faculty research, educational conditions, student education and performance, and reputation. Of these, Kookmin University improved its overall ranking by three places (16th to 12th), with significant increases in scores in three categories: faculty research (37th to 15th), educational conditions (18th to 13th), and reputation (18th to 13th).

The most notable areas are industry-academic cooperation revenue per faculty member and technology transfer income per faculty member in the faculty research sector. Kookmin University's focus on industry-academia collaboration, which has traditionally been competitive, contributed to its rise in both categories, ranking second and third, respectively. The Department of Information Security and Cryptography, which leveraged its strengths in cryptography and mathematics to win a series of research contracts worth about 10 billion won in the field of defense technology, stood out in particular.  Considering that most of the revenue from industry-academia collaboration comes from engineering departments, the department's excellent results were recognized as distinctive. 'Technology transfer income' refers to the amount of money a university receives for transferring research results and technologies to companies, and in 2019, Kookmin University was ranked as the university with the highest technology transfer income per science and technology professor, making it a particularly strong field.

KU was also ranked 13th in the reputation category, up five spots from 18th last year. The reputation rankings are based on surveys conducted by a polling firm in conjunction with the JoongAng Ilbo, which included corporate human resources managers, high school students and teachers, and parents. Kookmin University made a strong showing in the ranking of preferred universities for corporate recruitment, ranking 12th, up two spots from 14th last year.

“In addition to our traditionally strong industry-academia cooperation, foreign students, and entrepreneurship, we have made overall improvements in a variety of areas, including faculty research, employment, and reputation,” said an official from Kookmin University, adding, ”We will not be complacent with the results of the evaluation, but will improve various conditions to stand out as a university that sets the standard for higher education.”