UP Manila enters Global Top 500 – U.S. News & World Report
Inquirer.net
05 October 2026
MANILA, Philippines —The University of the Philippines (UP) Manila emerged as the Philippines’ lone representative in the global Top 500 of the U.S. News & World Report’s 2026-2027 Best Global Universities rankings.
The country’s premier health sciences university rose 32 places from its previous ranking of No. 479 to No. 447 among 2,250 universities evaluated by U.S. News & World Report.
UP Manila said Monday that it “joined other universities that entered the roster of the best universities in the world, including Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton University, and Harvard University, among others.”
UP Manila ranked first in normalized citation impact and in the percentage of highly cited papers among the top 1 percent most-cited publications.
It also placed No. 112 among the best universities in Asia and No. 972 in global research reputation.
Despite posting a lower global score of 50.8 in the latest rankings compared with its 52.5 score in the 2024-2025 rankings, UP Manila improved its overall position.
The rankings assess universities based on 13 indicators covering academic research performance, as well as global and regional reputation.
These include publication output, citations, books, international collaborations, conferences, and research reputation.
U.S. News & World Report said the indicators were selected to allow comparisons of higher education institutions across countries.
The media company noted that while the rankings primarily measure academic research and reputation, universities included in the list are likely to have highly respected faculty members.
The methodology for the five regional rankings—covering Africa, Asia, Australia and New Zealand, Europe, and Latin America—was also based on each institution’s standing in the overall Best Global Universities rankings, according to U.S. News & World Report. /mcm