Mapua, MSU-Iligan join Philippines universities in Asia rankings

MANILA, Philippines — Two Philippine higher education institutions (HEIs) have joined the country’s top universities in the Asian rankings released by education information provider Quacquarelli Symonds (QS).

The Mapua University and Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology made their debut in the annual regional rankings this year, at 401-450 and 451-500 places, respectively.

They joined six other Philippines HEIs, led by the University of the Philippines (UP), which jumped three spots from No. 75 last year to No. 72 this year.

Following UP are the Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU), the De La Salle University (DLSU) and the University of Santo Tomas (UST), which all dropped in their respective rankings.

ADMU fell from the 95th spot to 115th, while DLSU dropped 19 spots from 134th to 155th. UST fell from 145th last year to 162nd this year.

Meanwhile, the University of San Carlos in Cebu maintained its 301-350 rank, while Siliman University in Dumaguete fell from 351-400 to 451-500.

The Ateneo de Davao University and Xavier University, which made it to the rankings released in 2016, failed to reclaim their spots this year in the top 500 universities in Asia.

CHED chairman J. Prospero De Vera III welcomed the inclusion of more Philippine universities in the rankings.

“I commend the eight universities that are now part of the latest QS Asian university rankings and I look forward to more Philippine universities entering the top 500 in the coming years,” he said in a statement.

De Vera said they plan to launch a program that aims to boost the quality and competitiveness of Philippine higher education institutions through promotion of their internationalization initiatives worldwide.

“Through this project, we expect more Philippine universities to be included in the internationalization rankings and develop programs that improve the quality of education in their respective institutions,” he said.

The QS university rankings in Asia is based on 11 criteria, which includes 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 regained the top spot from the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, which fell to the third place after the University of Hong Kong.

Tying with Nanyang on third place is the Tsinghua University in China, while placing fifth is the Peking University, also in China.

Completing the top 10 are the Fudan University, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Seoul National University in South Korea.