The University of the Philippines (UP) climbed three notches higher to the 69th spot in the list of Asia’s best higher education institutions (HEIs), according to the 2021 Asian University Rankings from Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) released Wednesday night, November 25.
With 634 HEIs ranked, UP emerged among the top 11% of Asian universities for 2021.
The national university’s 2021 regional ranking is its highest since 2016, gaining one place from its introductory ranking of 70th in the 2017 Asian index.
“Its position in the top percentile steadily rose from the top 17.6% in the 2018 edition, to the top 14.3% in the 2019, the top 12.9% in the 2020, and the top 10.3% in the last,” UP explained.
QS assesses schools based on metrics such as academic reputation, employer reputation, faculty-student ratio, international faculty and students, faculty with doctorate degrees, papers per faculty, citations per paper, inbound and outbound exchange, and international research network.
According to QS, UP’s academic reputation is its strongest performance indicator this year. The state-run university obtained 64.67 points in the said criterion, outranking 582 other HEIs in the region at 52nd.
“Academic reputation was arrived at from 102,500 responses to a global survey of academics,” the state university said.
In terms of publication, the University said that it had published nearly 5,000 papers from 2014 to 2018 which were cited over 22,000 times from 2014 to 2019.
Aside from the country’s premier university, 13 other HEIs—including three more state-run universities—got in the 2021 Asian list.
The next top five Philippine schools are Catholic-run Ateneo de Manila University at 135th, De La Salle University at 166th, University of Santo Tomas at 186th, University of San Carlos in Cebu City at 451-500th, and Ateneo de Davao University at 501-550th.
Following these universities are Mapúa University, Silliman University in Dumaguete City, Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT), Adamson University, Central Luzon State University (CLSU) in Nueva Ecija, Central Mindanao University (CMU) in Bukidnon, Central Philippine University in Iloilo City, and Xavier University in Cagayan de Oro City.
MSU-IIT, CLSU, and CMU are all publicly funded.
UP is ranked 396th for 2021 among the world’s top HEIs, according to a report from QS last June.