At the 2026 regular school yr, four science and engineering establishments, including the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST), Ulsan Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), and Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), swept the high to fourth in regular competitors amongst 190 universities nationwide with a mean competitors ratio of 82.79 to 1. In addition, the variety of regular candidates for contract departments linked to semiconductor corporations resembling Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix additionally elevated by practically 40%, displaying a restoration in the reputation of engineering faculties.
According to an evaluation of the regular competitors price of 190 universities nationwide by Jongno Academy on the 18th, the Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology recorded the highest competitors price in 2026 with 120.50:1.
The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology ranked second with 81.80 to 1, adopted by Ulsan Science and Technology (80.53 to 1) and Gwangju Science and Technology Institute (65.93 to 1). fifth place was additionally attributed to Korea Energy Technology University (46.80:1), with engineering schools sweeping the high ranks.
The academy neighborhood analyzes that the reputation of medical faculties is comparatively lowering and the reputation of science and engineering faculties is growing resulting from the mixture of employment difficulties, semiconductor increase, and legislative battle. Science and engineering departments, which had been step by step shedding reputation with competitors charges of 74.02 to 1 in 2022 and 61.87 to 1 in 2023, quickly soared to 103.74 to 1. Although its reputation briefly subsided final yr resulting from the improve in medical faculties, even this has been restored to its authentic state, and the competitors price for science and engineering has been recovering since this yr.
Conversely, the variety of regular candidates for medical faculties in 2026 decreased by 3,393 (32.3%) in comparison with the earlier yr. The similar is true of increasing the subject of view to drugs, dentistry, natural drugs, and water. Compared to the earlier yr, the lower in candidates was 17.1%, 12.9%, 22.4% in oriental drugs, and 14.5% in veterinary drugs, displaying a 24.7% lower general.
Lim Sung-ho, CEO of Jongno Academy, stated, “Considering that the number of top-ranked n students in 2026 has decreased due to a significant increase in the number of medical schools recruited in 2025, the decrease in the number of applicants for the Science and Technology Institute is relatively small compared to the medicine department.”
Contract departments at giant firms are additionally gaining reputation. The variety of take a look at takers who utilized to 16 contract departments of seven giant corporations, including Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, was 2,478, a 38.7% improve from the earlier yr (1,787). It is the largest in the final 5 years. A excessive school instructor in Seoul stated, “As it has the advantage of being linked to hiring global semiconductor companies, which have recently achieved record-high performance, the preference of top-ranked students for contract studies has increased a lot.”
Yonsei University’s system semiconductor engineering division, which is linked to Samsung Electronics, had a contest ratio of 5.8 to 1, with 187 candidates for 32 recruitment, and Sungkyunkwan University’s semiconductor system engineering division additionally had a contest ratio of 5.3 to 1, with 80 candidates making use of for 15 recruitment. Hanyang University’s semiconductor engineering division, which is a contract division linked to SK Hynix’s recruitment, confirmed a contest ratio of 11.8 to 1 with 118 candidates for 10 purposes, whereas Sogang University’s system semiconductor engineering division utilized for 10 purposes. The semiconductor engineering division of Korea University recorded a contest ratio of seven.5 to 1 with 112 purposes for 15 purposes.
In the future, universities will proceed to push for the institution of contract departments at giant corporations, and it’s anticipated to grow to be a separate particular help subject from the contract departments created by the Science and Technology Institute or main non-public universities. However, modifications in the variety of medical faculties after the 2027 school yr is usually a variable. B, a professor of engineering at a non-public college in the Seoul metropolitan space, stated, “There were a lot of students who wanted to go to medical school by taking half of their classes, but now it feels calm,” however added, “How the number of medical schools will be determined will determine whether the preference for engineering will continue.”
[Reporter Lee Yong-ik]