THE UNIVERSITY of Santo Tomas (UST) secured a ranking in just one out of 11 disciplines in the 2024 Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings by Subject as it failed to meet the eligibility requirements in the majority of the subjects.
UST placed within the 800-1000 band globally in the clinical and health subject. However, it was not ranked in the rest of the subjects, including arts and humanities and social sciences, the fields of expertise of the Faculty of Arts and Letters (AB), due to failure to satisfy THE’s eligibility requirements.
“The University of Santo Tomas would need to meet the eligibility criteria…to rank in other subject areas,” THE told The Flame in an email interview.
According to THE, the University did not rank in the arts and humanities, which covers some of the programs offered by AB, due to “insufficient publications.”
The arts and humanities subject must meet at least 250 publications from 2018 to 2022 with at least 5% proportion of academic staff or 50 academic staff in the discipline.
At least 500 published works from 2018 to 2022 must be met by the clinical and health category, which recognizes universities leading across medicine, dentistry and other health subjects. The discipline should also have at least 5% proportion of academic staff or 50 academic staff.
Other areas covered by the THE rankings are business and economics, computer science, education, engineering, law, life sciences, physical sciences and psychology.
THE added that a university must have, at least, 500 papers for computer science, life sciences, and physical sciences; 200 papers in social sciences and business economics; and 150 papers in law education, within the last five years to be included in its subject rankings.
Meanwhile, academic staff must have at least a proportion of 4% in engineering or social sciences; 1% for computer science, psychology, law or education; 5% for other subjects, or clearly an absolute number of academic staff in a discipline.
THE’s individual subject rankings are determined by the 18 performance indicators used in the overall 2024 World University Rankings, brought together with the scores provided under the areas of teaching, research environment, research quality, international outlook and industry.
An institution has to meet the research publication and staff thresholds within a discipline to be eligible for THE’s subject rankings. The weightings of the methodology vary by subject.
“An institution also needs to be active in a subject to be included (in the ranking),” THE added.
UST scored 17.0-25.1 overall in the clinical and health subject, made possible by its scores in teaching (12.3), research environment (7.6), research quality (38.5), industry (20.8) and international outlook (70.9).
UST was second among the only two Philippine universities ranked in the clinical and health subject this year. The University of the Philippines, which placed within the 501-600 band, remained the country’s best in the discipline.
Last September, UST secured its first-ever rank in the THE World University Rankings after obtaining a spot in the 1501+ bracket worldwide.
READ: ‘Reporter’ no more: UST obtains rank in THE World University Rankings for the first time
According to THE, UST performed best in the international outlook pillar (67) but fell behind the areas of teaching (19.6), research environment (9.5), research quality (25.8) and industry (20.7).
“[The University of Santo Tomas] does lag behind in…assessing the learning environment despite achieving a good score in the Student Staff Ratio. It also performs below the world median in Research environment, Research quality and Industry, showing room for improvement here,” THE told The Flame in a recent email interview.
The University only received a “Reporter” status last year due to failure to meet a research publication requirement. The status is given to institutions that submitted data but did not qualify to obtain a ranking. F
