THE UNIVERSITY slipped to fifth best among Philippine schools in the January 2025 Webometrics Ranking of World Universities after dropping 29 spots to 2,406th worldwide.
In the latest edition of the rankings, which measure schools’ online presence and research productivity, UST fell from the 2,377th global rank it obtained in the July 2024 edition, where it placed fourth in the Philippines.
University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman reclaimed its position as the top-ranked school in the Philippines, rising to the 938th spot from 7,824th in July 2024, when it exited the top 10 after falling to the 58th spot in the Philippines.
De La Salle University dropped to No. 2 in the country and 1,514th globally.
Webometrics ranks the UP System, or the network of the campuses of the state-funded university, as a separate entity from UP Diliman. UP System slipped to 1,829th from 1,825th, placing third in the country.
Ateneo de Manila University rose to 2,055th worldwide from 2,092nd, while Mapua University placed 3,215th from 3,204th.
Webometrics editor Isidro Aguillo said the rankings serve as a gauge for universities in assessing the openness and quality of their online research publications.
“We aim to motivate both institutions and scholars to maintain a web presence that accurately reflects their activities. If an institution’s web performance is below the expected level given its academic excellence, university authorities should reconsider their web policies, promoting substantial increases in the volume and quality of their electronic publications,” Aguillo said.
Harvard University, Stanford University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology remained the top three universities in the world.
Webometrics assessed 32,000 higher educational institutions from over 200 countries in the latest edition.
It measures schools’ research performance and online impact using three indicators: visibility (50%), transparency openness (10%), and excellence (40%).
