Ateneo retains top spot among PH universities in 2026 THE World University Rankings
Ateneo de Manila University has been named the number one Philippine university for the fourth consecutive year in the 2026 Times Higher Education World Rankings.
In the ranking released on Thursday, Oct. 9, ADMU landed in the 1001 to 1200th bracket with an overall score is at 32.1-35.4.
The universities are assessed based on 18 performance indicators with five core pillars, namely teaching, research environment, research quality, industry, and international outlook.
Following ADMU on the list are the University of the Philippines (1201-1500 bracket), and in the 1501+ bracket: De La Salle University, Mapúa University, Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology, and the University of Santo Tomas.
The University of Oxford was named the top school in the world. Also landed on the top five universities are the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in rank 2, Princeton University and the University of Cambridge in rank 3, and Harvard University and Stanford University in rank 5.
Meanwhile, the top three universities in Asia are China's Tsinghua University and Peking University, and the National University of Singapore.
This year's ranking included a total of 2,191 higher education institutions from 115 countries and regions.
THE said that Asia’s top universities have stalled in performance for the first time in 14 years, while US universities "continue to decline even before the effects of the Trump administration’s attacks on higher education show up in the data."
Universities are excluded from the rankings if they don’t teach undergraduates, have fewer than 1,000 research papers from 2020–2024 (at least 100 per year), or if 80% of their research is in just one of 11 subject areas.
Meanwhile, those labeled as “reporter” provided data but didn’t meet the criteria to be ranked. A total of 42 Philippine universities had "the reporter" label in this year's list.
