Philippine universities still lag behind their Southeast Asian neighbors whose top ranking universities place higher than ADMU. Photo by The EdLines
While one more Philippine university was added to the 2025 Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings, the overall standing of the country’s universities remained unchanged from last year’s and still behind ASEAN peers.
The Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU), which has been top university in the Philippines for three straight years, remains in the 1001-1200 bracket globally.
The state-run University of the Philippines follows ADMU and keeps its position in the 1,201-1,500 range.
The University of Santo Tomas, De La Salle University, Mapúa University and, the newest addition to the list, Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology, all tied in the 1,501+ category.
Philippine universities ranked this year totaled six, up from five last year. However, ranks were unmoved from 2024 ranks which recorded a sharp drop from 2023 results.
The Philippines also still lags behind their Southeast Asian neighbors whose top ranking universities placed higher than ADMU.
In terms of rankings, Singapore led the Southeast Asian region. Its National University of Singapore ranked 17 while its Nanyang Technological University placed 30th.
Malaysia followed with its Universiti Teknologi Petronas landing in the 201-205 bracket.
Brunei Darussalam, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia trailed behind. Brunei’s Universiti of Brunei Darussalam landed in 501-600 tied to Vietnam’s UEH University. Thailand’s Chulalongkorn University and Mahidol University landing in the 601-800 range and Malaysia’s University of Indonesia stood at 801-1000.
Across Asia, Philippine universities scored below average in most areas, except for student-staff ratio and international collaboration.
THE’s rankings assess universities based on five key areas: teaching, research environment, research quality, industry and international outlook.
Tool for benchmarking
ADMU’s performance includes a global rank of 744th in teaching, 1673rd in research environment, 928th in research quality, 1501st in industry, and 1511th in international outlook.
Ateneo de Manila President Fr. Roberto Yap SJ expressed pride in the university’s performance, but acknowledged that rankings are merely tools for improvement.
“Rankings do not fully define what Ateneo stands for; our core mission remains the same: to educate and form minds and hearts to be of service to others,” Yap added.
UST leads Philippine universities in international outlook with a score of 64.4 but ranks lower in other areas like research quality and teaching.
Phil Baty, THE’s chief global affairs officer, praised UST for maintaining its ranking amid increasing competition.
“We are delighted to see that [UST] has maintained [its] ranking… This is a fantastic achievement,” he said, as reported by The Varsitarian.
The THE rankings included a total of 2,092 institutions from 115 countries this year.
Meanwhile, the University of Oxford held its top spot in the global rankings for the ninth straight year—the longest in history—thanks to gains in industry income and research patents.
Despite Oxford’s success, the reputation of UK universities overall is declining, with teaching reputation down by 3% this year.
Across the Atlantic, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology now ranks second globally after overtaking Stanford University.
Harvard and Princeton also improved their standings but continue to face challenges amid a competitive global landscape.
