Top Philippine universities drop places in latest THE rankings

MANILA, Philippines — Top Philippine universities part of the 2024 Times Higher Education (THE)'s World University Rankings fell a few spots from last year, with Ateneo de Manila University continuing to lead Philippine schools.

Ateneo slid to 1001-1200th place from a rank of 351-400 in last year’s global rankings. The University of the Philippines, which placed second, fell from its tier of 801-1000 down to 1201-1500.

De La Salle University sank from the 1201-1500 tier to the 1501+ category while the University of Santo Tomas improved to a 1501+ rank compared to last year’s “Reporter” status.

Mapua University, which entered the rankings for the first time last year, fell to “Reporter” status this year.

A “Reporter” status is given to a school when it submits data to THE but falls short of meeting the criteria needed to be ranked against other schools.

Universities this year are evaluated across five areas: teaching (29.5%), research environment (29%), research quality (30%), international outlook (7.5%), and industry (4%).

“Research environment” and “research quality” are new names for categories that used to be just “research” and “citations,” based on last year’s rankings.

This year’s rankings introduced more performance indicators, increasing them from 13 to 18. Schools are now also evaluated according to their research quality and the number of granted patents.

Commission on Higher Education Chairperson Popoy De Vera said in a statement sent to media that there could be a few factors behind Philippine universities’ drop in places in this year’s THE ranking.

“There are additional HEIs that joined the rankings. So if the scores of the new/additional HEIs are high, they will be ranked higher than Phil HEIs and the