Ang Dabawenyo

Just last night, I was reminiscing my college days with a friend of mine, Ryan from London, who’s now taking up medicine back in England. Today, I got an email from another friend about the Top 20 Universities in the Philippines.

According to the email (and to numerous other blogs that have carried this piece for more than a month now), this is a result of a study by the Professional Regulations Commission (PRC) and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED). These two government agencies conduct this survey, which is reportedly based on the average passing grades of all board examinations in all courses, once every 10 years.

It has been traditionally accepted that the three best universities in the country are Ateneo de Manila, De La Salle University, and the University of the Philippines (Diliman). But in this year’s Top 20 list, the first two I’ve mentioned are not very high up anymore.

Here’s the list (in order of rank):

1. University of the Philippines (Diliman Campus / Luzon)
2. University of the Philippines (Los Baños Campus / Luzon)
3. University of the Philippines (Manila Campus / Luzon)
4. Silliman University (Dumaguete City / Visayas)
5. Ateneo de Davao University (Davao City / Mindanao)
6. Ateneo de Manila University (Manila / Luzon)
7. University of Sto. Tomas (Manila / Luzon)
8. Mindanao State University (Iligan City / Mindanao)
9. Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (Manila / Luzon)
10. Saint Louis University (Baguio City / Luzon)
11. University of San Carlos (Cebu City / Visayas)
12. Xavier University (Cagayan de Oro City / Mindanao)
13. Mindanao State University (Main / Mindanao)
14. Urios College (Butuan City / Mindanao)
15. Polytechnic University of the Philippines (Manila / Luzon)
16. De La Salle University (Manila / Luzon)
17. Mapua Institute of Technology (Manila / Luzon)
18. Adamson University (Manila / Luzon)
19. Central Mindanao University (Bukidnon / Mindanao)
20. University of Southeastern Philippines (Davao City / Mindanao)

I attended Ateneo de Manila, so I felt rather dismayed seeing this list. But then, my alma mater is really Ateneo de Davao, because that’s where I went from pre-school to high school.

Seven universities from Mindanao made it to this list, and two are from Davao City. My heartfelt congratulations to my alma mater and to the University of Southeastern Philippines!

Other interesting statistics: five of the Top 20 are government-run schools; three are Jesuit schools; five or six are Catholic, and one is under the United Church of Christ. The oldest university in the list (and in the whole country) is University of Sto. Tomas; and the newest is probably the University of Southeastern Philippines.

(Here are the links to the PRC and CHED. But if you’re trying to verify this Top 20 list, don’t bother, I didn’t find it in either of these two official Web sites.)