Website trendingbalita.online published on Oct. 28 a misleading report on how the University of the Philippines (UP) fared in the 2019 Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) Asian University Rankings by mixing fact with opinion.
The report bore the headline, “Rally pa more – UP, Hindi Nakapasok sa Top 10 Asian University ng British Company Quacquarelli Symonds (Continue with your rallies – UP did not get in the ten top Asian universities ranked by British company Quacquarelli Symonds).”
In its content, the report said some Filipinos have “reduced (their) admiration” for UP “due to the rallies of some of its students against the current government.”
It also said, “Our people seem right to reduce their admiration for UP, because in the latest list of Top Universities in Asia, UP never entered the top 10 of the Asian University list of British Company Quacquarelli Symonds.”
The report misleads by attempting to link UP’s poor performance in the QS rankings, currently 72nd in Asia and 384th worldwide, with its protests against the Duterte administration. Just this February, a number of UP students staged a mass walkout over the president’s war on drugs, proposed shift to federalism, tax reform, and several other policies.
QS ranks Asian universities based on 11 metrics: academic reputation, employer reputation, faculty-to-student ratio, international research network, citations per paper, papers per faculty, staff with a PhD, international faculty ratio and international student ratio, proportion of inbound exchange students and proportion of outbound exchange students.
UP has also never placed in the top ten of the QS’s annual review and ranking of universities, contrary to the impression trendingbalita.online gave in its story that it has done so in the past.
The university’s rank for 2019, however, remains to be number one in the whole country.
|
Year |
Asia |
World |
Philippines |
|
2019 |
72 |
384 |
1 |
|
2018 |
75 |
367 |
1 |
|
2017 |
70 |
374 |
1 |
|
2016 |
70 |
401-410 |
1 |
|
2015 |
63 |
367 |
1 |
The misleading report was published four days after QS released on Oct. 24 the 2019 Asian University Rankings.
It could have reached almost 2.3 million people with social media traffic to the story largely coming from the pages PRESIDENT RODY DUTERTE -FEDERAL MOVEMENT INTERNATIONAL, Tulfo Brothers Worldwide, and Duterte Supporters.
Trendingbalita.online has been publishing stories since July 6, 2017.
(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)
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