Phl universities lagging behind in Asia

The Philippines lags behind some of its regional counterparts in the latest Asia university rankings released by London- based Time Higher Education magazine yesterday.

The University of the Philippines was the only higher education institution in the country that made it to the list of the top 300 universities in Asia. It ranked 201 to 250, obtaining a weighted score of 18.2 to 21.3 out of possible 100 points.

It was the first time that a Philippine university entered the said Asian university rankings, which expanded the coverage from 200 higher education institutions last year to 300 this year.

The National University of Singapore topped the list for the second year in a row, followed by Peking University and Tsinghua University in China, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the University of Hong Kong.

Completing the top 10 are Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, University of Tokyo in Japan, the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Seoul National University, and Pohang University of Science and Technology, all in South Korea.

The ranking is based on 13 performance indicators grouped into five areas: teaching ( the learning environment), research ( volume, income and reputation), citations ( research influence), international outlook (staff, students and research) and industry income (knowledge transfer).

UP scored 23 percent in teaching, 10.6 percent in research, 13.5 percent in cita- tions, 42.1 percent in international outlook and 40.8 percent in industry income.

Potential education powerhouse

Despite the inclusion of UP in the list, the Philippines was not included in the countries identified to have the potential to follow the footsteps of Asian higher education powerhouses such as China and South Korea.

Among those mentioned were Thailand, Indonesia, Pakistan and Malaysia.

Thailand has 10 universities in the list, the most among Southeast Asian countries. It included Mahindol University, which ranked 97th.

Indonesia has two universities in the list ( Bandung Institute of Technology, 201 to 250; University of Indonesia, 251+), while Pakistan increased the number of institutions in the list from two to seven.

“But of the emerging university nations in Asia, the rankings results suggest that Malaysia has the greatest potential. The country claims seven of the top 200 places, up from four last year, and features a total of nine institutions overall,” the magazine said.

Its top university, the University of Malaya, ranked 59th overall in the Asian rankings.