The University of the Philippines Manila placed among the top 500 Best Global Universities, according to the latest U.S. News & World Report. 

It is the only Philippine university that was included in the top 500 rank in the 2024-2025 U.S. News & World Report which covers 104 countries and 2,250 higher education institutions (HEIs). 

In the latest ranking, the country’s premier health sciences center is #479 among Best Global Universities and #114 in Best Global Universities in Asia. The rankings are based on 13 indicators that measure the educational institutions’ academic research performance and their global and regional reputations including number of publications produced, total citations, books, international collaborations, conferences, regional research reputation, and global research reputation. 

UP Manila’s long line of acclaimed scientific researches and top graduates in the field of health sciences led to its #1 ranking in normalized citation impact, #215 ranking in regional research reputation, and #137 in the percentage of total publications that are among the 10% most cited. Moreover, the institution is ranked #202 in Clinical Medicine and #1 in the percentage of highly cited papers that are among the top 1% most cited. 

“Collaborative research is a driver for citations, especially within UP Manila, because of our involvement in different clinical studies.” Dr. Leo Cubillan, vice president for academic affairs explained during the 2025 UP Manila Faculty Conference on Mar. 20, 2025 at the Philippine International Convention Center.

With an overall score of 54.8, UP Manila placed #114 in Best Universities in Asia and  joined eight other Southeast ASEAN Universities that made it to the list of 2024-2025 Top 500 Ranking of Asian Higher Educational Institutions: National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, Thon Duc Thang University, Universiti Malaya, Duy Tan University, Teknologi Malaysia, Singapore University of Technology and Design, and Universiti Sains Malaysia.

Recently, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) commended UP Manila for its strong quality assurance mechanism that allowed it to secure an exemption from the Certificate of Program Compliance (COPC) set jointly by the CHED and Professional Regulations Commission (PRC), effectively allowing its graduates to proceed with their respective licensure examinations. In February, PRC reiterated it will strictly implement the CHED-PRC Memorandum Circular No. 01 (s. 2010) which requires SUC and Local Universities and Colleges (LUCs) to seek approval from the CHED to run their board programs. Thus, graduates of SUCs and LUCs without COPC will not be allowed to take their licensure examinations.

“This is the most facilitative way for us to ensure that all of our academic offerings are at par with international standards, are resonant with the needs of the country, are relevant to our stakeholders, and are prepared in a way that best prepares our students to be citizens of the future,” Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Bernadette Heizel Reyes said. 

Also in the conference, Cynthia Rose Banzon-Bautista, member for academe of the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM II) and the former vice president for academic affairs of the UP System challenged faculty members to continuously aim for improvement on academic standards. 

“Excellence is the pursuit of continuous growth. We never settle for the good enough, okay, or the good enough. Excellence is not about perfection, but about continuous striving to improve,” she noted. “It is about the impact of our work, how UP graduates keep out the values of honor and excellence, how our research serves society, and how our programs meet the needs with regard and relevance, how research actually increases and produces more knowledge and serves society.”

Aside from maintaining its academic leadership in the region and in the world, Chancellor Michael Tee is aiming for UP Manila’s broader role in the higher education ecosystem.  “While we celebrate this honor – it informs us that as the national university, we need to partner with more state universities and colleges so that within the next 10 years, we may see UP Manila and other SUCS in the top 500 universities,” he said.#

Text by Jennifer F. Manongdo

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