THE UNIVERSITY slipped seven places to 186th in the 2021 Quacquarelli-Symonds (QS) Asian university rankings, and placed fourth among 14 Philippine universities that made it to the ranking.
The 2021 overall score of UST declined to 28.27 from 32 in the 2020 ranking, where the University placed 179th.
State-run University of the Philippines remained as the country’s top university, rising to the 69th spot from 72nd in 2020.
Ateneo de Manila University slid to the 135th spot from the 124th spot in 2020. De La Salle University also tumbled from the 156th spot in the 2020 ranking to 166th in the 2021 ranking.
University of San Carlos, Mapua University and Silliman University, all of which ranked in the 351 to 400 range in 2020, dropped to the 451 to 500 bracket in the 2021 ranking.
Seven Philippine universities that were unranked last year entered the list: Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology (551 to 600), Adamson University (601+), Central Luzon State University (601+), Central Mindanao University (601+), Central Philippine University (601+) and Xavier University (601+).
The National University of Singapore remained the top university in Asia.
A total of 650 institutions from 17 countries in Asia were ranked. Universities from Hong Kong and China dominated the top 10 spots.
UST and Mapua kept their four-star ratings in the QS star rating scheme, which looks at program strength, facilities, graduate employability, social responsibility, inclusiveness and other factors.
Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology and Central Luzon State University were granted three-star ratings.
The 2021 QS Asian university ranking was based on universities’ academic reputation (30 percent), employer reputation (20 percent), faculty-student ratio (10 percent), international research network (10 percent), citations per paper (10 percents), papers per faculty (5 percent), staff with a doctorate degrees (5 percent), international faculty (2.5 percent), international students (2.5 percent), inbound exchange students (2.5 percent) and outbound exchange students (2.5 percent). Jacqueline B. Martinez
