Recently, Times Higher Education (THE) released the rankings for the top universities in the world and per continent, particularly those located in Asia. The top 100 universities in Asia for 2013 were ranked by THE based on the same criteria as THE World University rankings.
The universities were judged based on their core missions such as teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook. The universities must also employ 13 performance indicators to provide the most comprehensive and balanced comparison available.
The top 100 universities in Asia are as follows:
1. University of Tokyo - Japan
2. National University of Singapore - Singapore
3. The University of Hong Kong - Hong Kong
4. Peking University - China
5. Pohang University of Science and Technology - Republic of Korea
6. Tsinghua University - China
7. Kyoto University Japan
8. Seoul National University - Republic of Korea
9. Hong Kong University of Science and Technology - Hong Kong
10. Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology - Republic of Korea
See the full list here…..
My Thoughts on This Rankings
1. The Philippines must improve and develop more the education system in our country. Not even one Philippine university was included in the top 100 Asian universities. It is sad truth that our education system is deteriorating as the years go by because of many reasons. On the other side, there’s a good news because it is not too late to catch up and improve our education.
2. Giving more budget to our Department of Education is not enough to propel our education system because there are many cases of corruption and misused funds by principals and teachers of the schools.
The government should devise a system and methodologies to properly distribute the budget so that it will not fall into corruption. The budget must be used directly in purchasing items that truly needed by most of the schools like books and other equipment like computers and Internet facilities.
3. Increase the salary of professors and instructors in state universities so that they will not go abroad to work there or transfer to private universities that pays much higher compensations. The government must also give good incentives to researchers and professors who are specialized in their fields.
4. Continuously train all teachers in their fields of expertise so that their knowledge will be timely and competent as what the current situation demands. Teachers must be equipped with the contemporary tools to help them effectively teach their students.
5. Increase the budget of top universities and colleges in the country so that they can buy more equipment, tools and build more rooms for their students. It will be great if we can support as many students as possible to study abroad depending on their expertise while guaranteeing that they will return to the Philippines to use their acquired knowledge from abroad.
Final Thoughts
The University of the Philippines was among the top universities in Asia during the American period and after the World War II. However, it continuously slumped since then because of the low budget it received from the government.
Many professors and instructors also leaved the university to look for high paying positions in other private universities or worse, to teach abroad and find job there. We cannot ignore the fact that these educators need higher salary to support their family so as a nation, the Philippine government should increase their salary commensurate to their experience and years of service.
We cannot expect a fast recovery and improvement in our education system if we start now to act. It may take many years to see the result but the important thing is we should all act and do our part together.
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I’m most agree on your thoughts about this ranking it shows what we are doing especially on the education system of our country. In asia we’re still left behind in most all aspects. We really need faculty massive faculty development (e.g training, seminars, workshops, support for higher education for the faculty) to engage instructors in the advancement of knowledge this generation, We need more advance facilities and many more.