UST FAILED to notch a spot in this year’s ranking of world’s top 600 universities compiled by a London-based consultancy, sinking with three other Philippine universities in the yearly listing.
In the Sept. 11 report of Quacquarelli-Symonds (QS), UST was only good for the 601+ bracket. Joining the University at the tail-end of the World University Rankings is De La Salle University, which went down from last year’s 551-600th bracket.
Meanwhile, the University of the Philippines (UP) sunk to 348th with a score of 34.5, dropping 16 notches from last year’s 332nd.
Ateneo de Manila University fell to the 451-500 bracket, about a hundred notches from last year’s 361.
No other Philippine university made it to the QS survey. Last year, UST also landed in the 601+ bracket.
UST needs to improve its marketing efforts, Fr. Arthur Dingel O.P., assistant to the rector for planning and quality management, told the Varsitarian in an interview. “Kailangan mawala ang kultura na ang marketing at promotion ay pagyayabang.”
UST should also boost faculty research and publication to get a higher spot in the ranking, Dingel added.
“Research earns a lot of points. The faculty needs to research and publish more in peer-reviewed journals,” he said.
The last time UST made it to the top 600 was in 2010, landing in the 551-600 bracket. In 2008, UST entered the 401-500 bracket, the highest posted by the University since the survey started in 2004.
Earlier this year, UST also plummeted in the QS Asian university rankings. The University fell to 148th, 44 spots away from last year’s 104th.
Likewise, UP, Ateneo, and La Salle sank in this year’s Asian rankings to 68th, 86th, and 142nd places, respectively.
In the top 60 subject rankings, meanwhile, UP leaped to 250th in life sciences and medicine from last year’s 219th while it remained in the 326th spot in engineering and technology.
The state-run university landed on the 151st spot in arts and humanities, down from last year’s 123rd. It also posted lower ranks in social sciences and management (from 215th to 267th) and natural sciences (from 285th to 318th).
Jesuit-run Ateneo plunged to 391st from last year’s 219th in social sciences and management and dropped 43 notches in arts and humanities from last year’s 183rd.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is this year’s top university, ousting perennial leader University of Cambridge, which placed second.
MIT, which was at the third spot last year, scored a perfect 100 while Cambridge got 99.8. Harvard University trailed at third place with a score of 99.2.
Scores were only given to the top 400 universities.
Japan led Asian countries as it secured 27 schools in the top 600, while China had 20. South Korea had 18 universities, while Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand had six, four, and three, respectively. Singapore also had two universities in the QS listing.
The criteria for world university rankings were academic reputation (40 percent), employer reputation (10 percent), faculty to student ratio (20 percent), citations per faculty (20 percent), international faculty ratio (5 percent) and international student ratio (5 percent). Nikka Lavinia G. Valenzuela
