THE UNIVERSITY ranked seventh among eight Philippine schools that have demonstrated significant research productivity, according to a study by the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM II).
UST was categorized in the first tier of research-intensive higher education institutions (HEIs), with over 1,700 Scopus-listed papers across 10 disciplines as of June 2023.
It ranked above Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology and below De La Salle University (DLSU), the Manila, Diliman, and Los Baños campuses of the University of the Philippines (UP), Mapua University, and Ateneo de Manila University.
EDCOM II identified the cluster by evaluating comprehensive schools whose research output met the standards set by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, which is 150 published Scopus papers annually for five consecutive years.
The commission further filtered the eight schools comprising the first tier to exclude non-comprehensive institutions.
The five schools deemed first-tier comprehensive research-intensive HEIs by EDCOM II were:
- De La Salle University (DLSU);
- University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman;
- Ateneo de Manila University;
- UST; and
- Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology.
UST achieved the highest medical research productivity among the five comprehensive schools in the cluster, with 497 papers published over five years.
Based on the University’s disciplinary strengths, the commission recommended partnering it with Central Luzon State University and Batangas State University, both second-tier research-intensive state universities.
This proposed five-year partnership aims to enhance the schools’ research productivity and faculty mentoring capacity through various collaborative projects, according to the EDCOM II study.
Meanwhile, DLSU recorded the highest number of Scopus-listed papers among HEIs in the country, with two disciplines surpassing 1,000 papers: computer science (1,196) and engineering (1,133).
UP Diliman excelled in engineering research with 721 papers, Ateneo led in social science research with 589 papers, and Mindanao State University performed best in physics and astronomy with 312 papers.
The study, titled “Establishing Targeted Human Resource Development Partnerships between the Philippines’ First-Tier Research-Intensive HEIs and Second-Tier Research-Intensive SUCs,” was published by EDCOM II in collaboration with DLSU.
EDCOM II is a commission established by the Marcos Jr. administration in 2022 to assess and evaluate the performance of the Philippine education sector.