No doubt, each and every university here in the Philippines and even outside the country has the desire to score well in the beauty contests for academic constitutions. Universities consider rankings important because they measure how the world perceives them. Here in the Philippines, it is really a big thing especially for the university rivalries, Ateneo and the University of the Philippines.
In the latest university rankings released by the Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) and Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), the University of the Philippines rose from 398 in 2007 to 276 this year. Ateneo de Manila University rose from 401-500 to 254.
The data and figures and most of all the released ranking were questionable. It is for a reason that the University of the Philippines never had an agreement of participating in the survey. According to UP Vice President for Public Affairs Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo, even the president of the University did not receive any invitation to take part in the survey or even a questionnaire t
o answer it.
However, this was not the first time that it happened. Even in the year 2006, where the University of the Philippines ranked 299 in the world universities, THES-QS declined to give explanation where it got hold of the data that were used to come up with that result. As an outcome, the University of the Philippines refused to accept the invitation to join the 2007 survey for the World’s Top Universities.
With the decision that the University of the Philippines has made, the THES-QS sent a letter to inform the said university that if it will not participate in this year’s survey, they will use last year’s data. But the question here is that “Do they really have a data of the University’s performance last year?” This is really a big question on the accuracy of the methodological procedure of obtaining records. The validity of the measurement was really unstable. First, they cannot even elucidate where they got information. They did not even conduct a survey to evaluate the performance of the university. According to the International Ranking Systems for Universities and Institutions: A Critical Appraisal, published by BioMed Central, the Times simply asks 190,000 individuals to list what they consider as the top 30 universities in their field of expertise without providing input data on any performance indicators. So, probably they just manipulated those data and figures that resulted to UP entering the Top 300 of World’s Universities and perhaps, it could also be the reason why Ateneo surpas
sed “The National University of the Philippines” in this year’s World Ranking.
Second, if THES-QS had really evaluated the institution, who are those individuals who judged the reputation of the university based on the peers and recruiters reviews? We do not even know if these individuals tapped by THES-QS are reliable ones. We do not even know if these individuals really have the knowledge about the university that they are evaluating.It could also be that those who make peer reviews promotes their own university. Another thing, it was not even clarified what were the questions that were asked during the survey. It is also a question of the credibility of the ones who evaluated the university.
Lastly, the other half of the index is from the student-to faculty ratio, the number of foreign faculty and foreign students in the university, and the number of citations in internationally accredited publications. Data for these indicators depend on the information that participating institutions submit. But UP did not even submit any data and figures to supply these indicators with results. The country’s National University has neither released official statistics for survey purposes nor consented to any survey undertaking by a local or international body. It just shows that an institution’s index and most of all, its real world ranking may be easily distorted if it fails to comply with requirements needed for the relevant indicators, and if it chooses not to participate, just like what the University of the Philippines did.
I am an Iskolar ng Bayan and I have nothing against the Jesuit run Ateneo. I am a Filipino and I am even glad that we do have our own universities here in the Philippines like the University of the Philippines, Ateneo, University of Santo Tomas and De La Salle University that made their way to list of the world’s top 500. World Ranking of Top Universities like the THES-QS is supposedly meant to serve as the best guide for us students to know which universities around the world truly stands out and outshines. They should give students proper information of universities who really offers quality education and does extremely well in different fields of learning. However, such international rankings like the THES-QS cannot be taken seriously until such time that it proves its integrity and credibility with the academic community.
References:http://www.up.edu.ph
No comments:
Post a Comment