[Late, but better than never. These two articles are from Michael Tan's Pinoy Kasi column in PDI. Please, please read them. I thought of taking photos of the six London unis in the top 100 to go with the post, but looking at the rankings makes me want to stay inside my room and study harder. My two pence worth on this (and yes, I am screaming): MORE SCHOLARLY RESEARCH! APPLY FOR SCHOLARSHIPS!]
World's best
By Michael Tan
Inquirer
Last updated 00:10am (Mla time) 10/25/2006
Published on Page A15 of the October 25, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
SOME time back, i rote about the ratings of Asian universities given by Asiaweek magazine. Sadly, Asiaweek has closed down, so I thought we would no longer be able to compare universities in the region.
But it turns out that there are global surveys as well, one of which was just released last Oct. 5. This is the Times Higher Education Supplement-Quacquarelli Symonds (THES-QS) World University Rankings. With thousands of universities in the world, it is an honor to make it to this list, which is based on several criteria, including faculty-to-student ratios and ratings given by more than 3,000 academicians and 700 leading international employment recruiters.
How did the Philippines fare? I'm going to keep you in suspense and just say, for now, that four of our universities did make it to the top 500 universities.
Global ranks
Let's look first at the THES-QS list of 20 leading universities. Note that there are ties so there might be occasional skipping of numbers: Harvard (1st), Cambridge (2nd), Oxford (3rd), Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Yale (tying for 4th), Stanford (6th), California Institute of Technology (7th), University of California in Berkeley (8th), Imperial College London (9th), Princeton (10th), University of Chicago (11th), Columbia (12th), Duke (13th), Beijing University (14th), Cornell (15th), Australian National University (16th), London School of Economics (17th), Ecole Normale Superieure (18th), National University of Singapore and Tokyo University (tying for 19th).
Most of the universities are American and British, but there is also representation from Australia, France, China, Singapore and Japan. Most of the leading American universities are private; in fact, on that top 20 list, the University of California Berkeley is the only American public institution. When I went on to the top 500 universities, I found that in
all countries of the world, with the glaring exception of the United States and one other country (which I'll name later but which you may have guessed), state universities lead in the rankings.
Asia's best
I decided to pull out the Asian (to include Australian) universities from the THES-QS list and found that among the world's 500 leading universities, 90 are from Asia. Japan leads with 28, followed by China (including Hong Kong) with 16, Taiwan with 8, South Korea and Thailand with 7 each, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines with 4 each, Australia with 3, Singapore with 2 and Bangladesh with one.
Do be careful with those figures since it's not just a numbers game. Australia and Singapore have few universities on the list, but they are all high up in the ranking.
Enough with the suspense. Let's look at how the Philippines did. The University of the Philippines (UP) came in 299th globally and 47th among Asian universities. I have to say that's not too bad, considering how UP has had to plod along with shrinking budgets and with the flight of so many good professors. Trailing behind UP were three private universities: De La Salle (392nd), Ateneo de Manila (484th) and, talk about a photo finish, the University of Santo Tomas at 500th.
Lessons
Instead of bombarding you with more numbers, I'm going to analyze those rankings and spell out three important implications for our own educational system.
First, you don't need to be a rich country to have good universities, India being the best example. Even before independence, Indian nationalists had formed a commission to plan out their future and early on, they sought to form a network of science and technology institutions. After independence, funds were put in to establish a whole network, with several Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) campuses. IIT ranked 57th in the THES-QS global list.
Indonesia, a country less developed than the Philippines, is another example. It had three universities, all state-run, beating us in rankings: University of Indonesia (250th), Bandung Institute of Technology (258th) and University of Gadja Mada (270th).
Second, the other countries seem to recognize that excellence in education must be spread out throughout the country. Note that our four best universities are all in Metro Manila. In contrast, the Indian Institute of Technology has campuses in several states, all of which fared quite well when Asiaweek rated each unit back in 2000. The three Indonesian universities I just named are all on the island of Java, but at least they're found not just in the capital, Jakarta, but also in Bandung and Yogyakarta.
Thailand's best universities -- Chulalongkorn, Thammasat, Mahidol, Kasatsart, Chiang Mai, Khon Kaen and Prince of Songkla -- are all state universities and they are located in different parts of the country.
Third (and I've made this point time and time again), the state needs to invest in universities. The THES list is clear in showing that, with the exception of the United States and the Philippines, the leading universities in every country are state-owned. Sure, UP is the leader in the Philippines, but in other countries, several state universities – not just one -- made it to the THES list.
Most governments in the world have the wisdom to look at education as something too important to leave to "free market forces" (read: "profit"). Unless we learn from them, we will continue to see more diploma mills, more scandals in licensure exams and more Filipinos having to work overseas as cheap labor to develop other countries. Note that the THES-QS rankings also relate to international competitiveness, meaning if you graduate from those that lead in the rankings, you also stand a better chance of getting a well-paying international job.
UP is still among the world's best, but if we worked harder on the entire educational system, we should have more reason to be proud. Ultimately, we should be able to look at these university rankings as indicators of our current development strategies, as well as predictors of the country's future.
Studying overseas
By Michael Tan
Inquirer
Last updated 01:22am (Mla time) 11/10/2006
Published on Page A13 of the November 10, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
WITH the economy the way it is now, you might be wondering why I'm bothering to write about the possibilities of studying overseas.
First, I'm still getting inquiries about the Times Higher Education Supplement's World University Rankings, which I featured last week, from friends who want to know where to send their children. OK, so those are the rich ones and therefore does all this have relevance to the average Filipino family? It does.
The other reason I'm doing this column is that I've learned, over the past few months, that there are few takers for several scholarships being offered by Japanese, Australian, Singaporean and European universities.
Filipinos tend to get intimidated by these scholarship offers, thinking they have to be at the top of their class, excelling in all fields. You'd be surprised at who gets scholarships: quite often, all it takes are average grades accompanied by a strong dose of self-confidence as you write your resumé and your reasons for applying. But don't overdo your self-confidence; many of these agencies also practice affirmative action, meaning they will give preference to those from poorer families, those living outside Metro Manila and those belonging to minority groups, particularly Muslims and indigenous communities.
Now, please, please do not write me for more information about whom to contact. You need to exert some initiative here and prove you know how to look for the scholarships. Your best bets are to write the embassies, but you can also check the Internet for other scholarships, for example, by looking for the Erasmus scholarships offered by European countries.
For upper-income families, you might be surprised to find out that the cost of studying in some of these countries isn't actually quite as high as you think. The way private schooling costs have soared in the Philippines, it may actually be cheaper to study overseas, even with the cost of living factored in.
Why overseas
We do have good universities here, but there may be cases where an overseas education might still be useful. First, and this applies more for graduate studies, foreign universities might have courses that we still don't have here. That was what happened with me: I took medical anthropology at the University of Amsterdam since we didn't have that in the Philippines.
Second, living overseas allows an exposure to other cultures, and that itself can be a learning experience. That might even include the university teaching styles. I still remember the excitement I had as a college undergraduate in the United States, thrilled by the much freer discussions that teachers allowed, and the range of subjects one couldtake.
Third, overseas universities (even those in neighboring countries) often have better facilities and learning environments. My parents always told me, when I was in college, that it didn't really matter which university you studied in as long as you had the right environment and the right teachers. Most of our universities have that, to some extent, but it's becoming more and more difficult to survive with underpaid, overworked professors who vent their frustrations on students. Paradoxically, it's the brighter kids who end up most alienated without the proper environment. An overseas stint, even for a year, might be an option.
Which universities?
OK, so which universities? I will go back to the Times Higher Education Supplement's World University Rankings that I mentioned in previous columns to give you the 10 best universities for each of several countries you could consider. Note that these rankings are based more on peer review among educators, and among employers.
Also remember that there will be language proficiency requirements for Japanese and Chinese universities. It also tends to be very competitive getting into the undergraduate programs of some of these countries, where education is subsidized by the state.
Finally, don't limit yourself to the universities listed here. Do more research to figure out where you can go. For American universities, check the US News and World Report's annual ranking. I paid only P189 for a 2006 edition in Books for Less! That yearbook has very detailed information. For example, with business programs, they break down the best universities for a range of specializations, from accounting and entrepreneurship, tointernational business and real estate.
Here now are the best universities for certain countries, with their ranking among world universities:
United States: Harvard (1), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (4), Stanford University (6), California Institute of Technology (7), University of California Berkeley (8), Princeton (10), University of Chicago (11), Columbia (12), Duke (13), Cornell (15).
Canada: McGill (21), University of Toronto (27), University of British Colombia (50), University of Alberta (133), McMaster (155), Queen's (176), University of Waterloo (204), University of Western Ontario (215), University of Calgary (266), Dalhousie (270).
United Kingdom: Cambridge (2), Oxford (3), Imperial College London (9), London School of Economics (17), University College London (25), University of Edinburgh (33), University of Manchester (40), King's College London (46), University of Bristol (64), School of Oriental and African Studies (70).
Australia: Australian National University (16), University of Melbourne (22), University of Sydney (35), Monash (38), University of New South Wales (41), University of Queensland (45), Macquarie (82), University of Adelaide (105), University of Western Australia (111), RMIT (146).
Japan: University of Tokyo (19), Kyoto University (29), Osaka University (70), Tokyo Institute of Technology (118), Kyushu University (128), Nagoya University (128), Hokkaido University (13), Waseda University (158), Tohuku University (168), Osaka City University (232).
For the bold ones willing to study a European language before applying, here are the best besides the British ones: Ecole Normale Superieure (18), ETH Zurich (24), Ecole Polytechnique (37), Sciences Po Paris (52), University of Copenhagen (54), Ruprecht-Karls-Universitat Heidelberg (58), Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (64), University of Amsterdam (ahem, ahem, 69), University of Basel (75), Catholic University of Louvain (76).
To cap off this listing, here are the other higher-ranked Asian universities. Note how they rub shoulders with the best of American and European institutions: Beijing University (14), National University of Singapore (19), Tsinghua (28), University of Hongkong (33), University of Auckland (46), Chinese University of Hongkong (50), Indian Institute of Technology (57), Hongkong University of Science and Technology (58), Nanyang Technological University (61), Seoul National University (63).
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