Professor Park Tong-hee (Public Administration), Dean of the Office of University Planning & Coordination and also in charge of preparing for the evaluation, credited Ewha's recent decision to give professors more time for research. "Reducing the lecture hours for professors to six hours a week has increased both the satisfaction level of students and the research results of professors."
Several of Ewha's individual colleges also ranked highly in the KCUE's evaluation. Ewha was ranked first in the category of media studies and second for bioengineering. Ewha does not have a department of mechanical engineering, which was the third field evaluated.
Following Ewha, in the overall evaluation were, Hanyang University (Seoul Campus) with 96.76 points, Hanyang University (Ansan Campus) with 95.60 points, Inha University, 95 points, and Seoul Women's University, 93.92 points.
The KCUE's placing of universities in rank order was unexpected, since it had previously only categorized universities in four different levels, without giving specific grades. The KCUE explained that the ranking was meant to heighten universities awareness of their responsibility and to encourage them to fulfill their roles as institutions for developing human resources.
Some universities argued that the KCUE only evaluated the quality of specific departments and not the overall achievements of the schools. For example, Seoul National University (SNU)'s bioengineering department was ranked seventh, though SNU is involved in bioengineering with researches led by Professor Hwang Woo-suk, a world-renowned stem cell researcher. His works were not included in the evaluation since he is not in the bioengineering department, but in veterinary science.
However, the KCUE explained that their survey was objective since it was not based on the students grades in the entrance exams or employment figures, but on the educational environment, quality of research and financial management.