This is a re-posted opinion piece.
Not too long ago, Asians went to the Philippines to obtain top-quality education in many fields ranging from agriculture, arts and sciences, humanities, and English language proficiency.
Today Asians are not only bypassing the Philippines and instead going to Western countries for world-class education but have also set up some of the world’s best educational institutions right in their own backyard. Those educational institutions are offering better quality education than those in the Philippines.
This is indicated in the results of a study released recently by a London-based agency, which showed none of the Philippines’ top universities making it to the world’s 300 best. Not even the state-run University of the Philippines made it to the ranking drawn up by Quacquarelli Symonds, which focuses on studies abroad. The methodology of the QS study has been questioned, but the company has described this year’s study, with 32,000 academics and 16,000 employers participating, as the largest of its kind ever conducted.
UP, which did not participate in the study, plunged 18 notches to 332nd place from its ranking in the previous year. Ateneo de Manila University, which ranked second best among Philippine schools, plummeted from 307th to 360th place. Officials of both universities have promised to work harder in improving the quality of their services.
Meanwhile, the top 50 on the QS list included universities in China, Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea – countries that have invested heavily in public education. It is no coincidence that these are also countries that rank high in international studies on competitiveness.
Even if questions have been raised about the QS methodology, it is not the first time that Philippine educational institutions have fared badly in such studies. The slide in the quality of Philippine education has pulled down the country’s competitiveness and hampered economic growth. The QS study is just the latest challenge to intensify efforts to reverse this trend.
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Source: The Philippine Star, Editorial, Sept. 9, 2011
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