By Danilo P. Padua, PhD
World universities have been ranked since 2002 or 2003. There are now more than 15 of such rankings being made by different groups. Generally, they are based on submissions of data/documents by universities or on surveys. Sometimes, no surveys are involved, but only outcome-based data points are used to come up, supposed to be, with an unbiased list.
How do we look at these world rankings? These should be used to draw plans for the improvement of responsive academic programs.
Two of the rankings for 2023 were made by The Center for World University Ranking and QS World University Ranking. Both of them ranked Massachusetts Inst of Technology, Harvard University, Stanford University (all from U.S.), University of Oxford, University of Cambridge (both from U.K.) as the top 5 schools with just slightly different placements.
Another, the Times Higher Education Impact Ranking (THEIR), 5th edition was also released almost at the same time as the other two. It assessed 1,591 universities from 112 countries. It is the only global ranking that assessed university performance based on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDG). In particular, it is based on four areas: research, stewardship, outreach and teaching. It considers no poverty, clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, sustainable cities and communities, and peace, justice and strong institution.
CWUR came out with a global 2000 list last May, 2023. It evaluated more than 20,000 global institutions. The criteria they used for evaluation was based on what they termed as 4 pillars: education, employability of graduates, faculty and research output. The top 10% of those evaluated made it to the list. The ranking measured the professional success of each university’s alumni by counting the number of CEOs who had held or is holding the position at the FORBES’ top 2,000 global companies since 2011.
How did Philippine universities/higher education institutions fare? Only three made it to the elite list of 2000 top institutions: Asian institute of Management which was ranked #1,375; University of the Philippines Manila, ranked #1,687; and University of the Philippines Diliman, which was ranked 1,832. In terms of employability, AIM was ranked 47th, U.P Manila at 986. As for research, U.P. Manila and U.P. Diliman ranked 161st and 1,761st respectively.
That they belong to the top 10% of more than 20,000 educational institutions is really something to be proud of. But let us compare them to the ranking of our ASEAN neighbours. Singapore has 5 with a high of 81st rank; Thailand, 12; Malaysia, 9; Vietnam, 6; Indonesia, 3. Interestingly, Taiwan has 33 in the list. Most of those from our neighbours placed higher than the 3 RP institutions. Even Nepal, a small and land-locked country has a university better ranked than U.P. Diliman.
What does that mean? We are now being left behind. It seems that we are better on squabbling than coming up with plans to improve our lot. Great on making feel good report but hollow on substantive improvement measures.
Another one that came out for 2023 is the QS World University Ranking of 1,400 universities. This Quackquarelli Symonds ranking is one of the four most prestigious among the 15 or so world rankings being done. It actually started in 2004. Here, the ranking indicators used were: Academic reputations, employer reputation, faculty/student ratio, citations per faculty, and international student ratio/international faculty ratio.
As usual, we have only 4 universities in the elite list. U.P. at 412, Ateneo at 651-700, De la Salle and U.S.T. at 801-1000. During the early years of ranking all the 4 schools were ranked much higher but slid down through the years.
How about our ASEAN neighbours? It is amazing how they performed. In the top 500, Singapore has two, ranked so high at #11 and #19; Malaysia with 8 (one is ranked 70); Indonesia with 5; Thailand with 2. Even Brunei Darussalam with a very small population like Singapore has 2. We had only one. Of the 20 universities from our ASEAN neighbours, 18 were adjudged better than U.P. Also, Uganda, which can not be even considered equal to our economic status, has a university adjudged better than our 4 ranked universities.
Again what does that mean to us? The QS world ranking is a further proof that while our neighbours within the ASEAN or even elsewhere, are quickly improving their educational standards, we are stagnant to say the best.
The THEIR which assessed 1,591 universities in 112 countries seem to be better for the Philippines as 29 higher education institutions were ranked. Of these, 19 are SUCs and 12 are private schools. The three highest ranked are Ateneo at 201-300, De La Salle University and U.P. at 401-600. Four are ranked in the range of 601-800 that includes Batangas State Univ., Mariano Marcos State Univ., Univ. of Sto. Tomas, Leyte Normal Univ., and Tarlac Agricultural Univ.
The Cordillera Region is represented in the list by SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSITY (801-1000) and BENGUET STATE UNIVERSITY (1,000+). Kudos to SLU and BSU. Three other universities: CLSU, Mapua, and PNU are ranked the same as SLU. Sixteen schools including, VSU, MSU, ISU, Bul State U, U.San Carlos, and San Beda were bunched together with BSU.
If we feel so proud about that, let us see how we range against our ASEAN neighbours. Three of them has a university ranked in the top 20. Malaysia, ranked #4- has a total of 23; Thailand, #17 plus 3 others ranked 38, 74, 97- has a total of 58; Indonesia, #20-and 33 in all. Again, Taiwan, a non-ASEAN member but actually our nearest neighbour, has a large number of ranked universities with 44, three of them in the top 100.
We need to seriously and urgently look at our system, our plans and how we could encourage our teachers to do better, and how we could teach our students better. For example, in the State Universities and Colleges, faculty members are overloaded that they are almost always tied up with classroom activities already. No time to do research work and other related functions. Definitely, they can not teach new things without their own researches. Our decision makers are still clinging to the policies that may have been good 40-50 years ago. Our policies have to be drastically changed, otherwise we will continue to slide down the abyss of educational antiquity.
We stop patting ourselves for glories that we may have attained eons ago. It’s time to wake up from our self-imposed stupor. We need officials with great visions and determination to do things, not the self-important types.
It’s high time that there is an inter-agency effort to make the necessary face-lifts. CHED, DepEd, DBM, DOST, The Palace, and others should be in the loop for this. If no drastic improvement measures are not put in place, the time maybe near when countries like Cambodia (with one ranked already), Laos and Myanmar will overtake us as well. Vietnam is already ahead of us in some world university rankings.
We feel so great with our best rank #201 while our neighbours are ranked, #4, #17, #20, #38, #74, and #97? God bless the Philippines.**
