On university rankings: views from both sides of Katipunan Road
October 21st, 2008 by blackshamaI just arrived from a grueling field survey only to get an “important” email to the faculty from the Chancellor of the University of the Philippines in Diliman.
And what was this “important” email all about? It was about the recent THES university rankings!
The blurbs and their op eds have reported their reactions on the latest THES top 500 global university rankings where the University of the Philippines (UP) rating has gone from 398 in 2007 to 276 this year. Ateneo de Manila’s rating has gone from last year’s 401 to 254 in 2008. The views from both sides of Katipunan Road are given here and here. De La Salle is at 415th and our only ancient university, the Royal and Pontifical University of Santo Tomas is at 470th.
The blurbs have made fodder on the seeming fact that Ateneo has trounced UP this year. Fortunately we on either sides of Katipunan largelt don’t give a damn about this contrived rivalry. Those on UP’s side say that we are not even affected when the Blue Eagles make mincemeat of the Maroons, so why should these ratings make any difference?
Since many of us in UP have good and lifelong friends down on Katipunan Road, we are almost on the level on this. But we do have to give the cake to some Ateneans who think these ratings are somewhat mystically related to their raptorial treatment of that basketball team that lives on Taft Avenue.
Many in Ateneo think that while the ratings are really good news, it doesn’t mean that their university has achieved excellence. I doff my hat to our good friends in Loyola Heights. They do look at this levelheadedly in their own way. They point out the THES survey’s methods inadequacies as well as the Ateneo’s vision and mission and how it has initiated or catalyzed social action like the Pathways program. The THES of course has nothing to say about the latter.
On our side of the road, the UP has publicly said it never participated in the surveys, has questioned the method of the ratings and provided a link to a peer reviewed article published in BioMed central. This article questions the transparency of these university rankings.
Having read the BioMed article, the methodological pitfalls of these rankings are quite obvious. First of all they all have to average ratings. Any beginning student in information metrics knows that in taking the mean, it is possible to lose information. Also problems in normalizing university performance (given that universities worldwide have different indices in assessing themselves) are great pitfalls in the ratings.
While the THES and other ranking systems give priority to easily quantitated measures like ISI listed publications, it doesn’t give much weight on the diversity of university activities. Also the publication rate index suffers from bias towards certain disciplines. For instance as the authors of the BioMed article report, clinical medicine gets 50 times more citations than that of economics. Forget comparing that with scholarly works in the arts and humanities.
However in a university, even the most arcane discipline (like Philosophy? :-) ) needs to be fostered and taught. We can’t have a university where medicine is only the subject being taught!
Both the UP and Ateneo seem to get this point in their argument that the ratings have to be taken with other things in mind.
But as the UP chancellor’s email suggests, the ratings are really a marketing ploy. Universities that get the highest ratings will attract the most students that can cough up the fees. This is the unpalatable reality that Ateneo and UP will have to swallow.
Ateneo and UP seem to diverge on one point. Ateneo wants to “communicate” to the public what indices it needs to have in order it can be assessed properly. I reckon that the university will participate in future surveys. The UP on the other hand is unlikely to participate in future surveys unless the methods are made clear.
So Ateneo can serve us Pinoys well if it continues to teach seemingly “useless” subjects like Philosophy and doing constructive social action like Pathways. UP can serve Pinoys well by teaching seemingly “useless” subjects in Art studies, linguistics, geography and Filipino and having a critical eye on things like these surveys.
In doing so they are true top universities!
October 21, 2008 at 8:18 pm
blackshama, philosophy is not arcane. It influences every intellectual conversation in every intellectual fora. Simply put, it’s systematic and comprehensive thinking. That’s all philosophy is. What I find truly useless is political science. I mean, not useless, but harmful. It seems very accurate at times in predicting scenarios and outcomes in government and this works in many countries I suppose. In the Philippines, it’s a game.
If I had it my way, UP would be way down for unethical practices by its academics.
October 21, 2008 at 8:20 pm
On a different note, these surveys wouldn’t mean much if we have superstar intellects in our universities. Do we?
October 21, 2008 at 11:43 pm
Well some people in academe (err university admnistration!) think its arcane. One Catholic university in Manila has even closed down its philo department.
I don’t find it arcane at all. While I have extremely elementary philosophy training, even that bit helps me ask the right scientific questions.
BTW the surveys would mean much even if we have superstar intellects. What would happen is that university administrators would stop looking for alibis! :-)
OK I agree. let us shut down useless academic departments that generate lots of hot air to power alternative energy generating plants.
If we shut down UP’s poli sci department, what would happen to those op ed columnists in the blurbs? One of them says that throwing an egg in protest is “fascistic” and violates “human rights”. :-)
October 21, 2008 at 11:57 pm
panalo. does the fellow smoke? :D
October 22, 2008 at 12:49 am
i wouldn’t characterize philisophy, art, literature and history as “arcane” or “useless”. a well-rounded education that includes all these makes for a truly civilized mind. it’s one thing for a a cyber whiz to access all the information available in the internet but for him to comprehend and be interested in the information he is reading takes a lot more than just his ability to find it. it’s one thing to go and see the ruins at olympia or the pyramids in giza, another thing to appreciate their significance and their value to mankind as evidence of its past glory and ingenuity.
the best fruit of the pudding is in the eating, so the old saying goes. an institution of learning can only be judged accurately, as far as i’m concerned, by the quality of its product (and i don’t mean just scoring high in the bar or board examinations).
October 22, 2008 at 12:59 am
Presenting the ‘fruit of the pudding’ from the Ateneo…
- Romulo Neri,
- Joc joc Bolante,
- Ronnie Puno
- Mike Arroyo
Bon apetit.
October 22, 2008 at 1:13 am
Of course, the Ateneo is further distinguished by counting as a member of its faculty, the spiritual adviser of war criminals…
October 22, 2008 at 1:26 am
Re: “One Catholic university in Manila has even closed down its philo department.”
I guess all universities in Europe, I mean, ALL, must be simply, gobsmackingly, mindboggingly arcane.
Worse, all French high schools (lycées) must be so arcane, they ought to be taken down — every single French high school (baccalaureat degree or pre-uni) includes Philosophy in its curriculum. It’s a must!
It’s impossible to pass your French high school diploma (baccalaureat) if you fail your state Philo exam and without that ‘bac’ degree, no way you can get into a French uni.
October 22, 2008 at 2:13 am
adb,
blame the PTA. Parents have good hand in giving liberal arts a bad name, as if you can call yourself educated without good grounding in the liberal arts.
October 22, 2008 at 2:17 am
cvj,
Atenista ethics is pang-masa, even worse. All they really know is polite behavior and etiquette. Like I said in the past, they confuse ethics with etiquette.
October 22, 2008 at 6:58 am
…and what does this competition translate into?
October 22, 2008 at 7:37 am
Going against the grain of my blue feathers, I’d say that to be fair to the DLSU, what’s pulling its ranking down may be its commercially-focused arm – the College of St Benilde.
A university of otherwise Katipunan-class standards is tragically set back by the need to have a “college” to catch all its kick-outs. That way it can have its cake (standards of excellence) and eat it to (still make money of the rejects).
Makes business sense doesn’t it? ;)
October 22, 2008 at 8:09 am
benign0,
Being from that university in Taft, I’ll have to, unfortunately, agree. While Benilde has several excellent programs worthy of prestige, e.g., their school of culinary arts and their multimedia arts programs, there’s this wart on its side named “Computer Applications”, the course where failed engineering and computer science students seek refuge.
October 22, 2008 at 9:32 am
Going by Bencard’s fruit of the pudding standard, my beef against La Salle is that it has produced the likes of Enrique ‘Ricky’ Razon. The La Salle Brothers should do its share to take a stronger stand in fighting the Oligarchs who promote the degeneration of our institutions. As i blogged before, even as a symbolic move, they should rename this building.
October 22, 2008 at 9:53 am
Proof of the pudding? Name a good school that produces only good men and women.
October 22, 2008 at 9:59 am
Brian, certainly every school will have its bad eggs, but here in the Philippines, few approach ‘Katipunan-class’ standards.
October 22, 2008 at 10:01 am
mr. brianB,
obvious ba that its Ateneo? I hate to brag but most Ateneans have brought stability and order in this country. Without your Ateneo, where would this country be?
As for these Green earthlings over there at crappy Taft, they want a chaotic country, which is understandable given that their place out there teems of gangsters and thieves. Every day, whenever I fetch my daughter from St. Scho (obviously from my office at Amorsolo or better if I’m called at the Palace), these Green earthlings with dwarf’s minds cause traffic left and right. Talk about ” La Salle brothers should do its share to take a stronger stand in fighting the Oligarchs” thing, let them do the right and small things first–solve this pesky traffic jam in their backyard before they say they’re competent enough to solve the monumental problems of this country.
Leave state matters to the Blue Eagles.
October 22, 2008 at 10:10 am
blackshame and the rest,
come to think of it, every school that has “green” or shades of earth colors in their crests, always bring chaos to this country. look at alumni of UP. Mr. Marcos is a product of this institution. I can cite so many.
October 22, 2008 at 10:16 am
Ladies and Gentlemen, my university’s contribution:
Isko Moreno
Rey Malonzo
Panfilo Lacson
And our pride and joy, Mr. Michael V!
Bow.
October 22, 2008 at 10:37 am
Ive never been prouder of being a high school graduate than after reading the comments above. Hahahaha.
October 22, 2008 at 12:56 pm
UP and Ateneo’s best contribution to our fruit or egg basket
GLORIA MACAPAGAL ARROYO -MA Econ (1978) AdMU, PhD (1985) UP
Ooops I forgot that she is an alum of Assumption but I give the nuns the benefit of the doubt!
Of course Ateneo and UP have produced the antidotes to this like
Dr Ting Tiongco BS (1966) AdMU, MD (UP) 1971
and many more. I know some of these Ateneo-UP alums who are serving their people without due recognition. These “hybrids” as we may call them are decent men and women and live up to being men and women for others who have genuine concern for the country and the poor.
But for every bad egg, Ateneo and UP produce two or more good eggs. Unfortunately rotten eggs smell bad and people tend to notice them first!
October 22, 2008 at 12:58 pm
Ooops we forget the Royal and Pontifical University. She has produced a Jun Lozada!
October 22, 2008 at 5:59 pm
Hehe. More true than not.
October 22, 2008 at 6:39 pm
HP,
e puro hukay eh, don nga sa isang driveway ng st benilde me tambak.
kahit nasipa ako sa dlsu nung college
I am still proud of a la Salle hs education
and I am thankful na nakabalik pa ako don for my masters.
Amorsolo ba kamo, so nasa Solgen ka,I don’t think you’d be at NEDA.So you are not a top dog afterall, sabagay di mo naman direchong sinabi na top dog ka,medyo lang.
October 22, 2008 at 6:46 pm
blackshama, why don’t you think the good eggs in a given school (whether ateneo, up, dlsu or ust) censure the bad ones? why don’t the orders that are running these schools take this as an opportunity to take a stand for their beliefs (e.g. ‘Man for others’)? if there are honorary doctorates for those who have noteworthy achievements, shouldn’t there also be symbolic expulsions for these dishonorable alumni/alumna?
October 22, 2008 at 11:30 pm
we have kris aquino!
October 22, 2008 at 11:58 pm
It’s the good alums that should shame their alma mater. If you read the story of Edjop, the Ateneo couldn’t have the guts to hold a full wake for him. So Edjop, the magis seeker, in death shamed the Jesuits.
As for UP’s alums those of us who really work, live and die for what we believe in shame the university. The university is always a place for compromise and ideals. That the UP can’t do much for its two missing students is extremely shameful.
October 27, 2008 at 6:18 am
The survey is not a marketing ploy because UP participated in similar surveys in the past. As for the argument that the survey is “flawed,” all surveys are flawed.
Both schools are not “top universities” because they teach “useless” subjects but for other reasons. Those “useless” subjects are also taught in other schools that follow CHED guidelines for general education.