[Updated July 26: SONA, CHEd figures on university rankings don’t match 3 global metrics]
Only 10 Philippine universities are included in this year’s World University Rankings, not 52 as President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. reported erroneously in his second State of the Nation Address on Monday.
Of the 10, four—Ateneo de Manila University, the University of the Philippines, De La Salle University and Mapua University—were ranked by the annual publication of universities of the Times Higher Education (THE).
The rest were given “reporter” status. It means they “submitted data but did not meet the eligibility criteria for our global table,” according to Times Higher Education.
[Update: The Commission on Higher Education in a statement on Wednesday stood pat on the figure, 52, saying it came from three global ranking metrics--Times Higher Education (THE), Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) and the World University Rankings for Innovation (WURI)--as well as releasing a list of the 52 universities. However, CHEd's figure doesn't tally with those from the sources it cited. The commission also mixed global and Asia rankings as well ranking and rating systems. (See SONA, CHEd figures on university rankings don’t match 3 global metrics) Ten Philippine universities appear in THE World University Rankings and four in QS, which are also on THE. WURI, which measures universities differently from the two, listed 44.]
Listing his administration’s achievements in higher education, Marcos said in his 71-minute SONA:
More and more of our higher education institutions (HEIs) have reached world-class status. This year, 52 Philippine HEIs have been included in the World Universities (sic) Rankings, compared to just 15 last year.
It is unclear how the president arrived at this year’s figure for the World University Rankings, which is based on 13 indicators that measures a university’s performance across teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.
Ateneo de Manila University led Philippine universities in this year’s World University Rankings (ranked 351-400), followed by UP (801-1000), DLSU (1201-1500) and Mapua (1501+).
Given reporter status were the Cebu Institute of Technology, Mindanao State University – Iligan Institute of Technology, University of Santo Tomas, University of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines, Tarlac Agricultural University and Visayas State University.
Last year, only three universities made it to the World University Rankings: UP (ranked 601-800), DLSU (1201+) and Ateneo (reporter).
As for the 15 universities Marcos said were included last year in the World University Rankings, he was actually to the “Impact Rankings” which the Times Higher Education defines as “global performance tables that assess universities against the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).”
This year, 29 Philippine universities are on the global list based on impact rankings led by Ateneo (101-200), followed by DLSU, Mariano Marcos State University, Central Luzon State University, Mapua, UST and Tarlac Agricultural University (401-600).