Silliman Ranked One of Asia’s Top 350 Universities, Philippines’ Top 6

Silliman Ranked One of Asia’s Top 350 Universities, Philippines’ Top 6

Silliman University joins the list of Asia’s top 350 universities, based on the 2016 Asian University Rankings by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS). 

Only eight universities from the Philippines made it to the list of top 350. For years, QS only publicly released the top 300. This year, QS expanded it to include 50 more. Of the seven from the Philippines, Silliman is the only university from the Visayas among the top 300. 

QS is an independent research and analysis firm based in London. )Click to access full listing: QS Asian University Ranking 2016 )

The other seven Philippine universities are: University of the Philippines (70), Ateneo de Manila University (99), De La Salle University Manila (143), University of Santo Tomas (157), Ateneo de Davao University (251-300), Xavier University (251-300) and University of San Carlos (301-350). 

In the Philippines, QS ranked Silliman as one of the country’s top six higher education institutions. The University maintained its spot in the domestic ranking since 2012, the same year it also figured on the list of Asia’s top 300 universities. 

There are ten areas in which QS assesses the strength of Asia universities: Academic Reputation, Citations per Paper, Employer Reputation, Faculty-Student Ratio, Papers per Faculty, Staff with PhD, Inbound Exchange Students, International Faculty, International Students, and Outbound Exchange Students.

The rankings this year is said to be more comprehensive. It considered the previous rankings of universities since 2012. Based on the information from QS, Silliman registered this year high in citations per paper. Citations per paer is the ratio that measures the average number of citations obtained per publication, and is an estimate of the impact and quality of the scientific work done by universities. Data indexed by Scopus was also used. 

Silliman is one of few universities in the Philippines granted the highest institutional recognition of Full Autonomous Status by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED). It also enjoys the distinction of CHED Center of Excellence in Nursing, Teacher Education and Information Technology, and Center of Development in Biology, Marine Biology and Medical Technology. The University is also a member of the Philippine Higher Educational Research Network, convened by CHED and composed of top Philippine universities with strong research culture. 

In 2014, Silliman landed on list of 50 Most Beautiful Christian College and University Campuses in the World“. The University was one of only three in Asia; the other two are both in Tokyo, Japan.