China’s Shanghai Jiao Tong University announces the 2011 Academic Ranking of World Universities Yonsei marked 212th on the 2011 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) compiled and published by China’s Shanghai Jiao Tong University on August 15th. Yonsei stepped down from its 210th place last year, failing to step up six years in a row. Nevertheless, Yonsei still maintains its firm hold on number one place among private universities in Korea. Among Korean universities, Seoul National University ranked 143rd, five ranks above last year, while KAIST ranked 234th, and Korea University ranked 309th, twelve ranks below last year. Sungkyunkwan University ranked 312th and POSTECH ranked 355th. 17 out of the top 20 were universities in the United States including Harvard University which was ranked as number one, Stanford University as number two, MIT as number three, and UC Berkeley as number four. The other 3 on the top 20 list were Cambridge University which came in at number five, Oxford University at number ten, and University College London (UCL) at number twenty. University of Tokyo in Japan ranked 21st, making it the highest ranking university in Asia. ARWU has a research-oriented focus. The number of alumni and staff winning Nobel Prizes is one of the criteria the ARWU uses to rank universities. Therefore, supporting research and network among professors is crucial for the school to get a higher rank.