By Ishia Eleanor F. Marquez
Marking its fourth consecutive year in the list, Far Eastern University (FEU) retained its 11th place among 45 Philippine universities, with increased scores in several key indicators in the 2027 Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) Asia University Rankings released last November 3.
The University also remained consistent with its 2026 regional ranking upon maintaining its 132nd rank across 304 institutions in Southeast Asia. However, its overall standing declined after placing within the 781-790 bracket from its previous 761-770 placement.
Nonetheless, FEU recorded notable improvements across its scores compared to its 2026 ratings.
Compared to last year’s 1,526 universities, the 2027 QS Asia University Rankings evaluated 1,722 academic institutions across Asia based on 11 indicators under four key categories, namely research and discovery, learning experience, global engagement, and employability.
The University scored 30.1 for its academic reputation and 45.9 for employability, higher than its previous score of 26.4 and 45.4, respectively.
In terms of its research performance, FEU’s citations per paper significantly increased from 4.1 to 7.4, papers per faculty from 3.2 to 3.5, while faculty-to-student ratio rose from 6.6 to 6.8.
For international involvement, the Institution’s global research output improved from 23.4 to 28.6, while its international students rating climbed from 2.4 in 2025 to 3.8 this year as it was not listed separately last 2026. Moreover, FEU’s pool of international faculty members garnered a score of 5.0, higher than its previous 4.3 mark.
The metric for exchange students also reflected a similar increase, with outbound exchange scoring 11.8 and inbound exchange earning a 7.1 rating, compared to the previous year’s 9.6 and 3.6, respectively.
On the other hand, FEU’s rating in staff holding doctoral degrees declined to a score of 7.4 from 7.6 in the previous year.
Leading Philippine universities in this year’s overall QS Asia Rankings is University of the Philippines at 123rd, followed by Ateneo de Manila University at 151st, University of Santo Tomas at 202nd, De La Salle University at 204th, and Mapúa University at 494th.
FEU made its debut in the QS Asia list in 2024, placing within the 701-750 bracket and later ranking higher in 2025 with 681-700, before falling to the 761-770 placement in 2026.
The QS World University Rankings is an annual assessment of universities’ performance worldwide, which intends to guide students in making education-related decisions.
(Photo by Gabriel Matencio/FEU Advocate)