THE UNIVERSITY emerged as the sole No. 3 Philippine school in the 2027 Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings, landing in the 1,601-1,800 band as the ranking body introduced narrower brackets in this year’s edition.
UST had shared the No. 3 spot in the Philippines in the previous 2026 rankings with De La Salle University, Mapúa University, and Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology, all of which were placed in the broad 1,501+ bracket.
THE expanded its ranking bands this year to provide greater detail on university performance. Individual ranks now extend to 300 instead of 200, while 18 bands are used from the 301-325 bracket to 2,001+, compared with 11 bands previously.
Jesuit-run Ateneo de Manila University remained the country’s top university for the fifth consecutive year, staying within the 1,001-1,200 band globally.
State-run University of the Philippines also retained the No. 2 spot in the country, placing in the 1,201-1,400 bracket.
La Salle and Mapúa were ranked in the 1,801-2,000 band. Overall, six Philippine universities made it to the 2027 rankings, the same number as last year.
THE introduced narrower ranking bands in 2027, replacing the previous 1,501+ category. UST, La Salle and Mapúa’s new placements, therefore, cannot be directly interpreted as declines from their 2026 rankings.
The Philippines, however, continued to trail Southeast Asian neighbors in placement, with none of its universities making the global top 1,000.
Indonesia remained the most represented Asean country with 42 ranked universities, up from 35 last year, followed by Malaysia with 29, Thailand with 24, Vietnam with 14, the Philippines with six, Singapore with three, and Brunei Darussalam with two.
A total of 120 universities from seven Asean countries and territories were included in the rankings, up from 104 in the previous edition.
Asean top 100, global top 30
Five of the six Philippine universities in the rankings made THE’s list of the top 100 institutions in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Ateneo de Manila was the first Philippine school to appear, 31st on the list, while the University of the Philippines was 49th. No Philippine university appeared among the first 30 institutions on the Asean list.
UST, Asia’s oldest university, founded by the Dominicans in 1611, was the third Philippine school on the list, appearing 80th. La Salle of the Christian Brothers was 82nd and Mapúa, owned by the Yuchengco family, 86th.
The National University of Singapore (NUS) remained the top Southeast Asian institution after climbing two places to a record-high 15th globally from 17th in the 2026 rankings.
NUS joined China’s Tsinghua University, ranked 11th, and Peking University, ranked 13th, as the three Asian institutions in the global top 15.
Singapore also placed two universities in the global top 30 for the first time, with Nanyang Technological University rising to 28th from joint 31st.
Phil Baty, THE chief global affairs officer, said the latest ranking reflected a broader shift in the geography of global higher education, citing the record placements of universities in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia and the presence of three Asian institutions in the world’s top 15.
Global ranking
The University of Oxford in the United Kingdom remained the world’s top university for the 11th consecutive year.
It was followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at No. 2, while Princeton University and Stanford University tied for third. The University of Cambridge rounded out the top five.
A record 2,297 institutions from 118 countries and territories were ranked this year, up by 106 universities from 2,191 in the previous edition.
THE World University Rankings assess research-intensive universities across their core missions using 17 performance indicators grouped into five areas: teaching, research environment, research quality, international outlook and industry. Yuahn Zachary B. Guilas
