KU graduates dominate the upper-level civil service exam for 2016

Among all 278 successful applicants, 28.1% graduated from Seoul National University (SNU). Compared to last year, however, the number of SNU graduates has fallen drastically from 93 to 78.

The journal revealed that Korea University and long-time rival, Yonsei University, were expected to be in a neck-and-neck race for second place. Similar to last year, the winner was Korea University. Although the number of KU graduates has decreased from 55 in 2014, to 46 in 2015, and to 44 in 2016, the university has been successful in prevailing over Yonsei.

Until this year, Korea University graduates mainly excelled in general administration. Therefore, it is noteworthy that several KU graduates were successfully accepted as civil servants in finance and economy this year. In addition, six out of 11 successful candidates in international commerce were from Korea University. The university also had four successful applicants in general administration for regional offices, two in educational administration, and two in judicial affairs.

The journal reported that the prevalence of SKY (an acronym used to refer to three top universities in Korea: Seoul National University, Korea University, and Yonsei University) graduates passing the civil service exams has declined. Due to a relatively poor performance by Seoul National University this year, the number of successful candidates from the SKY universities was 163 (58.6%), a slight drop compared to previous years when SKY graduates accounted for over 60% of passing scores. According to the Law Journal, despite this year’s results, graduates from SKY universities comprise over 60% of successful test-takers in recent years: 66.7% in 2012, 67.6% in 2013, 60.9% in 2014, and 64.6% in 2015.