Teachers score President Marcos fixation on education rankings

MANILA, Philippines — The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) yesterday scored the government’s fixation on international education rankings instead of focusing on what it could do to ensure that higher education institutions help industrialize the country.

The ACT called out President Marcos for his “disappointment” over the absence of Philippine universities in the Top 100 of the 2024 Asia University Rankings of the Times Higher Education (THE).

“The ACT Philippines maintains that THE’s rankings do not reflect the priorities that are relevant to the Filipino masses and that its purported international standards are Western-centric yardsticks imposed on institutions based in countries structurally exploited by a Western-dominated global economy,” the ACT said.

During the National Higher Education Summit last week, Marcos said that the absence of Philippine universities in the Top 100 leaves much to be desired from the government’s end, stressing that it must rethink its strategy to “turn this trend around.”

No Philippine university made it to the Top 100 this year after Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU) – the lone Philippine university to place within the Top 100 in Asia in 2023 – fell to a lower bracket.

While remaining as the top Philippine university, ADMU placed in the 401-500 bracket this year, slipping about 300 places after being ranked 84th in Asia last year.

The last time Philippine universities failed to secure spots in the Top 100 was in 2022 when the University of the Philippines dropped to 129th place from 84th the prior year.