Last year, 4 RP schools made it in the global rankings of the Top 500 universities. This year, the 4 RP schools received very low rankings that two of them missed the Top 500. Only UP and Ateneo made it to the prestigious list this year.

Only two Philippine universities have made it to the latest rankings of top 500 schools in the world, the lowest in Asia, a report from QTV’s News on Q said.

In her report, Kara David said that based on the 2007 Times Higher Education World University Rankings, only the University of the Philippines (UP) and Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU) were able to make it in the list.

The two, however, were at the lower half of the list, with UP at 398th and Ateneo in 451st.

De La Salle University (DLSU) and University of Sto. Tomas, meanwhile, slipped out of the list, ending at 519th and 535th, respectively.

The television report also said that compared to other Asian countries, the Philippines has the fewest universities in the list, with India having eight, Thailand five, and Indonesia three, all of which ranking higher than UP.

UP president Dr Emerlinda Roman however said that this does not mean that the quality of education among the said schools is deteriorating.

“Hindi ako naniniwala na nag-deteriorate. Siguro sa akin ay hirap lang tayong humabol sa kanila, kasi dahil kulang sa pondo (I don’t believe that the quality of education has deteriorated. For me it’s more like we are having a hard time coping up with them due to lack of funds, among other reasons),” she said.

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