THE UNIVERSITY maintained its spot among the world’s top 1,000 universities based on the 2023 Quacquarelli-Symonds (QS) World University ranking released on June 8.
UST has stayed in the 801-1,000 bracket since 2018.
Nestor Ong, head of the UST Office of QS/THE Rankings, said the University retained its spot because of its “business as usual” activity amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
“During the pandemic, we took this opportunity to be active in our participation in the international scene and make ourselves effective in participating in international conferences to market and brand our University in terms of its reputation status,” Ong told the Varsitarian.
Ong said the University improved its scores by 31.58 percent from the 2022 ranking and was among the top 56.3 percent of universities in 2023.
The initial version of the 2022 World University ranking saw the University falling out of the top 1,000 universities in the world, but Ong clarified that it was an error due to a technical glitch in the QS portal.
He said the University chose to remain silent and waited for corrections to be made by the QS intelligence unit.
The University of the Philippines remained the country’s top university but slipped from 399 last year to 412 in the 2023 ranking.
Ateneo de Manila University also slipped to the 651-700 bracket from 601-650 in the 2022 ranking.
Tied with UST in the 801-1,000 bracket was De La Salle University.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology remained the top university worldwide among the almost 1,500 institutions ranked this year.
University of Cambridge swapped places with Oxford University to rank No. 2 in the 2023 ranking, from No. 4 in 2022.
Stanford University remained the third-best university worldwide, according to the ranking.
The QS World University ranking was based on eight indicators: academic reputation, employer reputation, faculty/student ratio, citations per faculty, international faculty ratio, international student ratio, employment outcomes and international research network of a university.
Ong said employer reputation was the strongest indicator for UST in the 2023 ranking, with the University climbing 46 places.
“Our University must continue to work together towards stronger international research collaboration, more international presence in global academic engagement/activities, more virtual networking strategies to build new contacts, and more data-driven actions and plans,” Ong said.
