KAIST on Wednesday confirmed that it has been excluded from the QS World University Rankings for one year.

“We were notified by QS in February that our university will be excluded from the ranking assessment and will not appear in the rankings starting this June,” a KAIST official told Korea JoongAng Daily on Wednesday.


The QS World University Rankings, one of the most widely read university rankings in the world, is usually published in June. KAIST, as a result, will be omitted from the 2026 rankings.

The decision follows an email KAIST’s Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering sent last November to approximately 300 university professionals abroad, offering $100 to those who participated in a survey related to QS.

One of the recipients — or someone close to them — reported the email to QS, ultimately leading to KAIST’s disqualification.

Public attention was drawn to the issue when Prof. V. Ramgopal Rao, the Group Vice-Chancellor for the Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS) Pilani in India, posted a screenshot of the email on LinkedIn. The professor had not personally received the email, according to KAIST official.

The faculty member responsible for sending the email, who had been working under a five-month contract, resigned following the controversy. KAIST officials did not confirm whether the resignation was directly linked to the incident.

The national research university uploaded an English statement on LinkedIn on March 10, emphasizing that it “does not and will never attempt to influence university rankings through improper means.”

A KAIST official also explained that the department promptly sent a follow-up email apologizing for any potential misunderstanding to all recipients and said no money had actually been distributed.

The university clarified that the email’s original intent was to seek expert advice on the department, particularly to those in India, where research activities were lacking. The $100 was intended as a token of appreciation, similar to offering an “honorarium,” the university official said.

Despite KAIST’s explanation and communication to QS, the ranking organization upheld its decision to exclude the university.

KAIST has since launched an Ethics Management Special Committee to practice ethical management and an internal audit to further investigate the incident.

“Participation in the survey does not guarantee an improvement in our ranking,” a KAIST official said. “We acknowledge that our intentions may have been misinterpreted. However, our university has been dedicated to advancing the nation’s science and technology, making this situation particularly unfortunate.”

KAIST achieved strong results in the QS World University Rankings by Subject for the 2025 academic year. It ranked No. 24 globally in the overall Engineering & Technology category and led Korean institutions in Computer Science, placing No. 29.


BY WOO JI-WON [woo.jiwon@joongang.co.kr]