Fact check: There aren't 52 Philippine HEIs included in world university rankings
MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED: 10:53 a.m., July 26, 2023) — President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. made a claim that there are 52 Philippine higher education institutions (HEIs) that made "world-class status" in his second State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday.
According to a list publicly shared by the Commission on Higher Education on Wednesday, only 30 colleges and universities made it to the global university ranking systems it cited, namely Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) world ranking, Times Higher Education (THE) world and impact rankings, and the World Universities with Real Impact (WURI).
While CHED's list features 52 schools in total, it had included in its count 22 schools that did not make it to the global university rankings but had been included in QS Asia rankings and/or had earned a rating from the QS stars system, which is not a ranking system, according to the QS website.
CLAIM: Marcos said 52 HEIs reached the World University Rankings in 2023. He claimed this is 37 HEIs more than in 2022.
RATING: This is false.
FACTS:
What Marcos said in his second SONA
The president lauded in his report on the country's education the greater number of Philippine HEIs attaining "world-class status."
Marcos claimed: "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 Rankings, compared to just 15 last year."
What was left out
CHED's response to Philstar.com's fact-check on Wednesday included a list of 52 schools that it said made it to global university rankings, namely QS, THE and WURI. CHED said: "These three (3) world university ranking metrics are identified by CHED pursuant to the Implementing Rules and Regulations of the RA 11448, otherwise known as the Transnational Higher Education Law."
However, only 30 schools were included in the global university rankings it cited. The other 22 schools were listed as part of the QS Asia rankings, which is a regional ranking of 760 Asia schools, and/or as a school that received an assessment from the QS Stars rating system.
According to a page on its website explaining the difference between QS Stars and other university rankings, QS Stars does not assign a ranking position to schools and instead gives a QS Star rating out of five based on an in-depth assessment of the school in several areas "similar to the areas considered in rankings."
QS noted: "But rather than comparing institutions against one another, they are judged on how they perform against a set standard. QS Stars is an audit on the strengths and weaknesses of a university. The university provides QS with evidence across dozens of indicators. This evidence is verified and the university is given an overall score, as well as a score for each category."
It also said that "there is no limit" to the number of universities that can achieve the highest score overall or in any category.
There are at least 15 schools on CHED's list that did not make it to any global or regional ranking but earned a rating from QS Stars.
THE found ten Philippine HEIs qualified for the World University Rankings in 2023, while only three of them in 2022. This is far from the 15 universities that Marcos mentioned.
Among the universities included are:
- Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU)
- University of the Philippines (UP)
- De La Salle University (DLSU)
- Mapúa University
- Cebu Technological University
- Mindanao State University - Iligan Institute of Technology
- University of Santo Tomas
- University of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines
- Tarlac Agricultural University
- Visayas State University
A "reporter" status was given to six of the universities included in the rankings, meaning they did not meet the eligibility criteria for THE's global table despite submitting data.
THE said this status "indicates that they are active participants in the ranking process, even though they have not been ranked this year."
The QS World University Rankings, on the other hand, only included five Philippine HEIs in its latest report, one university more than in the previous year.
The University of San Carlos, one of the five universities, did not make a spot in the rankings of THE this year but made it in the QS World University Rankings.
Other global university rankings would be the Impact Rankings of THE. A total of 29 Philippine universities were ranked in 2023 according to the THE assessment of the HEI's fulfillment of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Fifteen universities made it in the Impact Rankings of 2022.
Essential context
The THE World University Rankings base their rankings on performance indicators across the areas of teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook. Establishing global rankings "have helped to define the world's shared understanding of excellence, and created rich, internationally comparable datasets," the organization said.
QS ranks universities following three metrics: Sustainability, Employment Outcomes and International Research Network. Their results draw on the analysis of academic papers and expert opinions from teaching personnel worldwide.
When more universities make it to the global rankings, it signifies better education in the country.
Why we fact-checked this
No clear and substantive evidence can be found pointing to the 52 HEIs that Marcos stated in his second SONA.
Two news outlets, particularly the Philippine News Agency and Daily Tribune, have already published articles reporting on this inaccurate figure. — With reports by Cristina Chi
Editor's note: This fact-check has been updated to remove the three Philippine universities or colleges that were included in the CWUR 2022-2023 ranking. CHED has clarified that it does not recognize the CWUR as an international ranking metric. The update also incorporates CHED's response to this fact-check on July 26 as well as additional context on why Philstar.com's rating stands. In particular, Asia rankings are treated differently from world rankings, and HEIs that were simply listed on these international reports were not considered ranked.
--
Philstar.com is a founding partner of Tsek.ph, a collaborative fact-checking project for the 2022 Philippines’ elections and an initiative of academe, civil society groups and media to counter disinformation and provide the public with verified information.
Want to know more about our fact-checking initiative? Check our FAQs here. Have a claim you want fact-checked? Reach out to us at [email protected]
- Latest
- Trending
