December 12, 2024 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — Five Philippine universities, led by the University of the Philippines (UP), landed in the third Quacquarelli-Symonds (QS) World University Sustainability Rankings, which tracks higher education institutions’ ability to tackle the world’s most pressing environmental, social and governance challenges.
For the second straight year, UP emerged as the top-performing Philippine university in sustainability, placing 300th in the world, but slipping notches in the bracket from its previous place at 231st in last year’s edition.
It received an overall score of 70 out of 100, having garnered the best domestic scores across all three metrics – environmental impact, social impact and good governance.
Ateneo de Manila University climbed the rankings at 503rd place from last year’s 593rd, making it the second top-performing university in sustainability in the country.
De La Salle University (DLSU)’s sustainability performance also improved as it landed in the 911-920 bracket from the 981-1,000 bracket last year.
Mapúa University, which debuted in the rankings last year, also saw improvements as it ranked within the 1,141-1,160 bracket this year from last year’s 1,201+ placement.
The University of Santo Tomas (UST) slipped by a few notches to 1,041-1,060 from last year’s 1,001-1,050 bracket.
The report, released last Tuesday, ranked about over 1,700 universities globally this year.
The sustainability rankings are among the quality assessments conducted on colleges and universities nationwide by QS, a British higher education networking company.
The World University Rankings for sustainability was launched in 2022 and ranked about 700 in its 2023 report.
Online learning
UST was the lone Philippine university recognized by the Times Higher Education (THE) in its inaugural Online Learning Rankings (OLR), which tracks excellence in the delivery of online programs by universities worldwide.
UST landed in the “silver” tier in the three-tier ranking system of the 2024 OLR, with gold as the highest level and bronze the lowest.
Among Southeast Asian universities, UST also stood alone in the top tier, just below the gold level.
The online program delivery was rated on four base metrics, such as the staff and resources devoted to online learning, level of student engagement, outcomes and environment. The latter three were tracked based on student survey responses.
UST received a 49.4 rating out of 100 for staff and resources, 66.0 for student engagement, 50.5 for outcomes and 50.3 for environment.
Outcomes represent student progression and whether they would recommend the university to others, while environment tracks inclusion, diversity and support levels, especially for those with special needs.
The THE said no university achieved high scores in all the metrics, “reflecting the varying aims of online education providers and perhaps also the burgeoning nature of online learning.”
Be the first to comment