Rankings among universities as seen through brands: Korea University’s “surge” amid Seoul National University’s solo dominance; Yonsei University’s “slowdown”

The Korea Corporate Reputation Research Institute announced on the 8th the results of analyzing 154,683,804 domestic university brand big data items over the past month from June 8. This is a slight increase of 1.02% compared to the data volume analyzed last month, indicating that consumers' digital activities related to university brands are steadily continuing.

In the overall ranking, Seoul National University ranked first with a brand reputation index of 8,785,391. Seoul National University secured a participation index of 604,804, a media index of 2,465,250, a communication index of 2,310,422, and a community index of 3,404,915. However, compared to the index of 12,306,474 in June, it plummeted by 28.61%, showing a slight cooling of brand enthusiasm.

Korea University, which took second place, recorded a brand reputation index of 5,523,362, up 4.75% from the previous month. It was rare among top-tier universities for the index to rebound, successfully narrowing the gap with the first place. In contrast, Yonsei University, ranked third, was analyzed at 4,771,190, down 15.58% from last month, conceding the second-place spot to Korea University.

The 4th and 5th places were occupied by Kyung Hee University (3,407,606) and Sungkyunkwan University (3,311,224), respectively. While Kyung Hee University recorded a slight increase of 0.55% and maintained a stable reputation, Sungkyunkwan University saw its index drop by 36.16% over the month, the largest decline. Following them, Pusan National University, Chung-Ang University, Kyungpook National University, Chonnam National University, and Konkuk University made it into the top 10.

Looking at the detailed indicators, changes in consumer usage patterns are evident. The indicator representing brand consumption rose by 11.47% compared to the previous month, and the communication index also increased by 1.82%. However, the brand issue (-0.79%) and brand diffusion (-4.35%) indicators showed a downward trend, suggesting that the spread of university-related information has somewhat slowed.

The brand reputation index is calculated by analyzing the impact of consumers' online habits on brand consumption. Positive and negative evaluations, media interest, and conversation volume on social network services (SNS) are the main measurement criteria. This analysis also reflected channel evaluations conducted by consumer committee members of Korea Brand Monitor to enhance objectivity.

Koo Chang-hwan, director of the Korea Corporate Reputation Research Institute, said, "As a result of this month's university brand big data analysis, Seoul National University ranked first," and "The overall data volume increased, but there was a mixed trend with consumption increasing while diffusion decreased by detailed item."

Business Korea Lee Kwang-soo (pr@businesskorea.co.kr)