The University of Santo Tomas is the only Philippine school to receive a five-star rating in the 2025 Quacquarelli-Symonds (QS) Stars University Ratings released on Thursday, March 13.

UST received the second-highest rating for the second time since 2021, where it became the first and only university in the country to obtain the rating so far.

It retained its five-star rating in five categories: employability, facilities, global engagement, teaching, and social impact.

The University achieved four stars in Medicine as a specialist criteria, a star lower than its five stars in 2021. Meanwhile, it earned four and three-star ratings for good governance and arts categories, respectively.

The Academic Development category also got three-stars, down from four stars in 2021.

QS provides six tiers in its star rating:

• One star - Satisfactory
• Two stars - Moderate
• Three stars - Good
• Four stars - Very Good
• Five stars - Excellent
• Five stars plus - Outstanding

The QS Stars university rating system was developed to provide universities with another avenue to publicly highlight their strengths, besides the annual QS World University Rankings.

It assesses universities based on the following categories: learning experience, employability and outcomes, sustainability, research and innovation, and global engagement.