Katie, who graduated from Leeds University with a politics degree, secured a place in the final after she scooped the Miss Leeds honor and came in the top 20 in the Miss England pageant.
She has an IQ of 140 and is the first Brit to get the crown since the competition was launched in 1986.
World Miss University is an international contest held yearly in Seoul since 1986 and is organized by the International Association of University Presidents. The organizing committee dispatches harmony missions to regions in conflict like Kosovo and Rwanda.
Katie said: “I was in a state of shock and disbelief upon hearing I’d won. We had some actually interesting debates. “We were all students or graduates – it was academically engaging and not cheesy at all.
Katie won a cash prize and is planning to use the cash to pay off some of her student debt. She said: “I’d been looking for a graduate job without success for a year when I was invited to the World Miss University competition.
“I’d already done some aid work in South Africa before my degree, which enthused me to study politics and have recently been applying for grant schemes. “But nothing has quite yet come in concert.”
