The University of Santo Tomas won the Bronze Award for Best International Website Page during the 2018 Quacquarelli-Symonds APPLE Conference held in Seoul, South Korea. The announcement was made on November 21, 2018.
The University website (https://www.ust.edu.ph) was judged based on four criteria: a.) Design, which considers relevance to its audience and visual experience; b.) Interactivity, which deals with the participatory element of the website’s user experiences; c.) Functionality, which means that the website works well, loads quickly, and contains live links; and d.) Content, which is judged on the engaging, audience-appropriate, concise, and clear information provided on the website.
Receiving the award on behalf of the University was UST Deputy Director for QS/THE Rankings Engr. Nestor R. Ong, ASEAN Engr. Also in attendance were Office of International Relations and Programs Associate Director Prof. Karen S. Santiago, PhD, and QS/THE Rankings unit staff member Mr. Vien Vic G. Flores.
Santiago served as country representative in the QS Forum titled “Focus on Higher Education for Fast Growing Economies.” Meanwhile, Ong was the sole Filipino member of the QS-APPLE International Academic Advisory Conference Committee and he co-chaired the parallel sessions under Track 5: Building a Global University Brand during the conference.
This is the second time that UST won the award, with the first time being in 2015. In 2016, UST won the first Silver Award for Most Creative Corporate Institution Video during the 12th QS APPLE Conference and Exhibition in Putrajaya, Malaysia.
This year, UST was also nominated for the Creative Awards categories, namely, the Best International Print Advertisement, Most Creative Corporate Institution Video, Best International Student Recruitment Brochure, and Best Exhibition Booth Design.
