UP leads 14 Philippines universities in Asian rankings

by Janvic Mateo (The Philippine Star), 27 Nov 2020

MANILA, Philippines —Fourteen Philippine academic institutions have made it to top 650 universities in Asia – according to education information provider Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) – with the University of the Philippines still on top with its improved ranking from 72nd last year to 69th this year.

UP, the only Philippine university in the top 100, is followed by the Ateneo de Manila University at 135th (down from 124th), De La Salle University at 166th (down from 156th), University of Santo Tomas at 186th (down from 179th).

University of San Carlos dropped to 451-500 ranking from 351-400. The Ateneo de Davao University (ADDU), which was included in the 2014 and 2016 edition of the rankings, made it to the list this year at 501-550. It was in the same ranking as Mapua University and Siliman University, which both dropped from 451-500 last year.

In addition to ADDU, six other Philippine universities not included in the Asian rankings last year made it to the QS list this year.

These include the Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT) at 551-600 and Adamson University, Central Luzon State University, Central Mindanao University and Xavier University (XU) which were all at 601+ ranking.

MSU-IIT and XU made it to the QS Asian Rankings in 2018 and 2016, respectively.

The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) lauded the Philippine universities that made it to the list, noting efforts to help them understand the international ranking system and promote their internationalization initiatives through university-to-university twinning programs and research, study visits and scholarships in top foreign universities.

“Since 2016, many Philippine higher education institutions have gained increased exposure and visibility by attending educational fairs and international conferences, mobilizing student and faculty exchanges, and building strategic partnerships and linkages which have contributed to the fulfillment of this wonderful achievement,” said CHED Chairman J. Prospero de Vera III.

The QS university rankings in Asia is based on 11 criteria, which include academic reputation, employer reputation, faculty-student ratio, international research network, citations per paper, papers per faculty, staff with doctorate degrees, international faculty, international students, inbound exchange and outbound exchange.

The National University of Singapore (NUS) retained the top spot, followed by Tsinghua University in China (up from fourth), Nanyang University in Singapore (down from second), University of Hong Kong (down from third) and Zhejiang University in China (up from sixth).

Completing the top 10 are the Fudan University (up from seventh) and Peking University (down from fifth) in China, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (retained at eighth), Universiti Malaya in Malaysia (up from 13th) and Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China (up from 17th).

Among Southeast Asian universities, UP is behind 12 other universities: Singapore’s NUS and Nanyang; Malaysia’s Universiti Malaya, Universiti Putra Malaysia (28th), Universiti Sains Malaysia (34th), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (35th) and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (39th); Thailand’s Chulalongkorn University (43rd) and Mahindol University (44th); and Indonesia’s Gadjah Mada University (57th), Universitas Indonesia (59th) and Bandung Institute of Technology (62nd).

In its university ranking last June, the London-based Times Higher Education placed UP at 65th in Asia and fifth in Southeast Asia.