PH universities slip in global rankings
PHOTO: Official website of Ateneo de Manila University
For the second year in a row, Ateneo de Manila University remains the top Philippine school in the latest global rankings of the British magazine Times Higher Education (THE).
According to the 2024 edition of THE World University Rankings, the Jesuit-run Ateneo placed in the 1001-1200 bracket—a huge slide from its 351-500 debut placing in 2023.
Even so, it bested the University of the Philippines, which came in second after placing in the 1201-1500 bracket (from 601-800 in 2023).
Roberto Yap, Ateneo president, said their placing this year showed that “our work in teaching, research and social engagement is recognized here at home and abroad.”
De La Salle University and University of Santo Tomas (UST)—which debuted in the THE ranking last year—also placed in the 1501+ bracket.
The UST Office of the QS/THE Rankings deputy director Nestor Ong told The Varsitarian that the university’s ranking on the 2024 list was a “three-month initiative our office initiated with Elsevier and other research partners to count … research publications from the UST Hospital.”
A total of 1,904 institutions across 108 countries were ranked this year, with the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, Stanford University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States leading the pack.
THE implemented a new methodology for the 2024 rankings, which significantly affected the rankings of many of the institutions on the list.
The Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) said after the release of the rankings that it would use the results to help improve higher education institutions (HEI) in the country and tapped Mariano Marcos State University to conduct a comprehensive analysis of THE rankings vis-a-vis data across universities in the country.
“The results will help guide [Philippine] HEIs on what they should do moving forward,” CHEd Chair Prospero de Vera III said in a Viber message to reporters.
De Vera said he had yet to study the data on this year’s rankings but noted that foreign HEIs improved their scores faster than Philippine HEIs because of increased investments in research, faculty and facilities.
