UNIVERSITY of the Philippines led Philippine universities that made it to the latest world rankings of top higher education institutions by the UK-based Quacquarelli Symonds (QS).
The 20th edition of the QS World University Rankings 2024 that features 1,500 institutions ranked UP at 404th place, the highest among Philippine universities, and an improvement from UP’s 412th spot in the QS 2023 ranking.
Ateneo de Manila University ranked 563rd, followed by De La Salle University in the 681-690 bracket and the University of Sto. Tomas in the 801-850 bracket.
Cebu City-based University of San Carlos joined the “Big Four” universities in the ranking by placing in the 1,201-1,400 bracket.
In the 2023 QS ranking, Ateneo ranked in the 651-700 bracket and De La Salle in the 801-1,000 bracket.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States remained as the top university in the QS ranking, followed by the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford.
In fourth and fifth places were Harvard University and Stanford University.
The Imperial College of London and the ETH Zurich-Swiss Federal Institute of Technology were ranked sixth and seventh, respectively, while the National University of Singapore was in eighth place, the only Asian institution in the top 10.
Ranking ninth and tenth were the University College London and University of California, Berkeley, respectively.
In the same QS ranking, being held by a British company specializing in education and study abroad, UP remained as the top higher education institution in the Philippines in terms of “academic reputation, employer reputation, faculty- student ratio, sustainability and international research network.”
It ranked second in citations per faculty, third in employment outcomes and fifth in international students and international faculty.
Compared to other world universities, UP ranked 136th in terms of employer reputation, 57 places higher than its 2023 ranking; and 250th in academic reputation, or an improvement of 12 places in the previous ranking.
“Employer reputation is our strongest indicator this year,” the UP Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs said in a statement.
“Employer reputation evaluates the perceptions of global employers, through a survey, on which institutions are providing the most job-ready graduates,” it added.
Ateneo de Manila President Fr. Robert Yap said the school’s performance in the latest QS ranking is both an honor and a responsibility.
“It is an honor because it recognizes our entire University’s efforts in teaching, research, and outreach, and it is a responsibility because it tells us that we are in a privileged position to help change our world for the better,” Yap said.
De La Salle University Vice President for Research and Innovation Prof. Raymond Tan said the school will continue to innovate and further improve the quality of education it delivers to its students.
“As we approach the 50th anniversary of our university charter in 2025, our La Sallian community remains steadfast in its commitment to nation-building through quality education and knowledge generation,” Tan said.
Among the key indicators used to formulate the rankings are academic and employer reputations, the number of staff holding a PhD degree, the percentage of international students enrolled, faculty to student ratio, citations per paper and papers per faculty.
New metrics were included this year, namely, sustainability, employment outcomes, and international research network.
QS Vice President Ben Sowter attributed the rising rankings of Philippine universities to excellent employment-related indicators such as employer reputation and employment outcomes.
But Sowter added they also face challenges in research metrics such as citations per faculty and international research networks.
“The nation’s research efforts need improvement, emphasizing the importance of global collaboration and investing in trained lecturers,” Sowter said.
