According to Yonhap News Agency, Yonsei University and Korea University were able to claim the work of overseas scholars by granting them faculty titles without requiring them to live in South Korea or teach on campus, raising concerns over potential exploitation of this system.

Under ranking systems used by QS World University Rankings and Times Higher Education, research papers listing multiple institutional affiliations can be counted toward each institution’s total output.

Yonsei is reported to have begun the approach in 2017 through its "Yonsei Frontier Lab" program, recruiting overseas scholars and offering incentives of up to US$30,000 to list the university as an affiliated institution in published research.

Within six years, the program contributed hundreds of papers, helping Yonsei rise from outside the top 100 in 2018 to 70th globally in the QS rankings by 2023.

A Yonsei representative said the scholars were appointed during the Covid-19 pandemic, but contracts with around 14 individuals were terminated in 2022 after the university identified potential legal risks due to limited collaboration, according to The Korea Herald.

The representative denied paying scholars to list Yonsei as an affiliation, stating the funding was intended to support travel and living expenses.

Students at Korea University. Photo courtesy of the university

Similarly, Korea University launched its "K-Club" program in 2023, attracting around 150 overseas scholars. Its ranking in THE rose from outside the top 200 to 156th globally by 2026.

Analysis of Scopus, a global academic publication database, showed that of more than 8,700 papers linked to Korea University in 2025, over 1,000, or about 11%, were authored by K-Club members. By mid-March this year, the share had increased to 12.5%.

Most of these scholars hold full-time roles at overseas universities or research institutes. After being granted visiting professor titles, they list Korea University as a secondary or tertiary affiliation in their publications.

One example is Zahoor Ahmed, a Pakistani associate professor who published an average of one paper every two weeks despite never having worked on Korea University’s campus.

Korea University said the K-Club initiative aims to promote international collaboration, though only around 8% of roughly 1,600 papers authored by K-Club professors included co-authors from the university’s full-time faculty, according to the Scopus analysis.

The university described the model as a performance-oriented remote research collaboration approach aligned with global digital trends, citing practices at institutions such as Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Imperial College London.

It also rejected the term "ghost professors," arguing that academic contributions should not be judged solely on physical presence.

Under THE’s criteria, research environment and research quality account for a combined 59% of total weighting, while QS assigns 50% of its ranking weight to research and discovery.