THE UNIVERSITY kept its position in the Times Higher Education (THE) Asia University Rankings, landing within the 601+ bracket and ranking second among Philippine schools in the 2025 edition.
UST obtained a 13.6-28.2 overall score, and attained the following marks in the five indicators: research quality (26.9), industry (20.4), international outlook (64.4, highest in the Philippines), research environment 11.7), and teaching (23.6).
Asst. Prof. Nestor Ong, deputy director of the UST Office of QS/THE Rankings, said the University’s stable performance in the THE Asia University Rankings can be attributed to sustained research efforts.
“This includes increased research income, improved research quality, and fostering more international collaborations and co-authorships,” Ong told the Varsitarian.
“We focus on interdisciplinary research to address real-world problems, ensuring our research remains relevant, innovative, and impactful across all 17 UN SDGs, particularly in areas aligning with sustainable needs,” he added.
Six Philippine universities joined the rankings released Thursday, up from last year’s five. Fifteen other schools in the country were declared reporter institutions in this year’s edition, which featured a total of 853 universities from the continent.
Ateneo de Manila University remained the No. 1 school in the Philippines despite dropping to the 501-600 band from 401-500 in 2024.
The University of the Philippines also ranked first in the country after staying within the 501-600 range.
De La Salle University dropped to the 601+ range from 501-600, joining Mindanao State University – Iligan Institute of Technology, Mapua University, and UST in the No. 2 spot among Philippine schools.
THE Chief Global Affairs Officer Phil Baty said Asian education and research demonstrated diverse strengths, with East Asia delivering strong results and South Asia showing promising growth.
“We can see Asian higher education and research characterized by a wonderful diversity of excellence, with strong results in the East, in Singapore, South Korea and Japan in particular, and with growing visibility and success in the rankings for South-east Asian nations,” Baty said.
“In South Asia, we are very encouraged to see strongly growing participation in the rankings, demonstrating a willingness to embrace international performance benchmarks to support progress,” he added.
Five universities from China entered the top 10 of THE Asia rankings, with Beijing’s Tsinghua University and Peking University placing first and second, respectively.
The National University of Singapore remained in third place.
THE measured institutions using five key metrics: research quality (30%), research environment (28%), teaching (24.5%), industry (10%), and international outlook (7.5%).
Under the research quality metric, a university’s role in contributing new knowledge is evaluated through citation impact (7.5%), research strength (7.5%), research excellence (7.5%), and research influence (7.5%).
The research environment pillar measured research reputation among peers: research reputation (15%), research income (6.5%), and research productivity (6.5%).
Teaching pillar, or the learning environment, is measured through teaching reputation (10%), staff-to-student ratio (4.5%), doctorates-awarded-to-academic-staff ratio (5.5%), institutional income (2.5%), and doctorate-to-bachelor’s ratio (2%).
Metrics for industry are divided into industry income and patents, with 5% weight each.
The international outlook is categorized into proportions of international students, international staff, and international collaboration, all having a weight of 2.5%.
