Do Philippine Universities Require TOEFL or IELTS?

TL;DR: Mostly no. English is the medium of instruction in Philippine higher education, and universities screen applicants with their own entrance exams (ACET, USTET, USC's admission exam, UP's credential-based evaluation) rather than TOEFL or IELTS. Tests enter the picture in three situations: your schooling wasn't in English (UP requires TOEFL 500 paper-based / IELTS 5.5 from such applicants), the school sets its own minimum (USC asks IELTS 6.0 or TOEFL 60 "or as prescribed by the program"), or you're applying to graduate school (Ateneo wants TOEFL iBT 80 / IELTS 6.5, DLSU and UST list tests for international applicants — each with English-medium exemptions). A certification that your prior education was in English often substitutes for a score.

The Reality: English Is the Default, Not the Hurdle

The Philippines runs one of the largest English-medium university systems in Asia — lectures, textbooks, and exams in tertiary education are overwhelmingly in English (see our Philippine education system guide for how that came to be). That shapes admissions in a way that surprises applicants coming from the US/UK/Australia application world: instead of demanding an international English certificate from every foreigner, most Philippine universities test you themselves — through an entrance exam written in English — or evaluate credentials like the SAT or IB that already signal English competence.

So the practical question is not "what's the national TOEFL requirement?" (there isn't one — no CHED-wide English test rule appears in any university requirement list we reviewed) but "does my target school, at my level, with my schooling background, ask for a score?" Here is what the universities' own published requirements say.

What Major Universities Actually Require

Three patterns worth noticing:

1. Undergraduate admission is usually test-optional on English — the entrance exam does the filtering. Ateneo's international first-year checklist runs from report cards to a personal essay to passport copies without ever mentioning TOEFL.
2. Graduate schools are stricter, because there's no entrance-exam safety net and thesis-level writing is at stake.
3. "Or as prescribed by the program" (USC's phrasing) is doing real work. Programs with board-exam or clinical components can impose their own screens, so always read the program page, not just the university page.

A caveat on the table: these are the requirements as published on each university's own admissions pages as of August 2026, and universities revise them between admission cycles — sometimes mid-cycle. UST and DLSU in particular publish detailed English-test rules for their graduate schools while leaving undergraduate international pages thinner, so absence from the table means "not stated," not "not required." Treat the table as your starting position for an email to the admissions office, not as the final word.

For shortlisting, pair this with our guides to universities accepting international students and choosing a Philippine university from abroad.

Who Gets Asked for a Score: It's About Your School Language, Not Your Passport

Universities frame the requirement around medium of instruction, not nationality. UP's rule is the cleanest statement: the test applies to applicants "whose native language or medium of instruction in secondary school is not English."

What that means in practice:

• Likely to be asked: applicants who did secondary school (or, for graduate study, their degree) in Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai, Arabic, Russian, Spanish, French, or another non-English medium. This is why Chinese and Korean applicants routinely encounter the requirement while, say, a Nigerian or Indian applicant often does not.
• Usually exempt with paperwork: applicants from English-medium systems. Ateneo's graduate school publishes an explicit exemption list — degree holders from universities in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Jamaica, Fiji, and some 30 other countries can skip the test by submitting a "Certification of English as a Medium of Instruction" from their last university. Degrees from the USA, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Ireland, and Malaysia need no proof at all.
• Always exempt: at most schools, anyone whose prior degree was earned at a recognized Philippine institution.

If you sit in the "likely to be asked" group, note the fine print: Ateneo requires test scores no older than two years, and each school names which tests it accepts — don't assume a Duolingo or PTE score will fly without asking.

A Closer Look at UP: The Clearest Published Rules

Because UP Diliman publishes the most complete foreign-admission rules of the group, it makes a useful worked example of how English tests fit into the whole package:

• Automatic admission without UPCAT is available to international applicants who completed high school abroad and qualify through one of three credentials: an SAT total of at least 1270 (minimum 620 in Math and 650 in Evidence-Based Reading and Writing), a GCE with 2 Ordinary-level and 3 Advanced-level passes, or the International Baccalaureate diploma.
• The TOEFL/IELTS requirement sits on top of that, and only for applicants whose "native language or medium of instruction in secondary school is not English": TOEFL 500 paper-based / 173 computer-based, or IELTS 5.5.
• Applicants who can't qualify automatically may take the UPCAT instead.
• Deadlines bite harder than scores. UP asks foreign applicants to file at least four months before registration and "not later than April 15" for first-semester admission — and there is no second-semester intake for foreign applicants. A missed deadline costs you a year; a marginal IELTS band costs you a retake.

Note the shape of this: the English test is the smallest hurdle in the stack. Plan around the credential requirements and the calendar first.

Other Gates Foreign Applicants Hit (That Get Confused with English Tests)

A few non-language requirements often get lumped into the "do I need a test?" question:

• Medicine and Dentistry: CHED eligibility, not IELTS. Foreign applicants to these programs need a Certificate of Eligibility for Admission (CEA) from CHED — it appears on the Bureau of Immigration's own student-visa checklist. No English score substitutes for it.
• Entrance exam and application fees. USC charges ₱500 for its College Admission Examination (₱600 for architecture); Ateneo's application fee for international applicants is ₱2,500 (~US$44). Small amounts, but they gate the process.
• Filipino language courses after admission. Ateneo requires all accepted international students to take two courses in Filipino as part of the college curriculum — English gets you in, but it isn't the only language you'll study.
• Authenticated transcripts. Every school on the list requires apostilled or consular-authenticated records with English translations — for most applicants this takes far longer than booking an IELTS slot.

Interviews and School-Administered English Screening

Even where no TOEFL/IELTS is required, expect your English to be assessed somewhere in the pipeline:

• Entrance exams are in English. The ACET, USTET, USC's College Admission Examination, and UP's accepted credentials (SAT with a 650 minimum in Evidence-Based Reading and Writing for automatic admission, GCE, IB) all test English comprehension and writing by construction.
• Some universities interview foreign applicants or route borderline cases into English support. At basic-education level, international schools do the same at admission — Brent International School Manila's admissions FAQ, for instance, covers entrance testing and the school's English language support programs for students still building fluency.
• Essays and recommendations (Ateneo requires a 750-word personal essay from international applicants) function as writing samples.

In short: skipping the TOEFL doesn't mean nobody checks. It means the check is built into instruments you'll face anyway.

Practical Advice by Applicant Profile

• Educated in English (Philippines-bound from India, Nigeria, the US, etc.): Get a medium-of-instruction certificate from your last school before you leave home — it's a five-minute request there and a slow international errand later. Then focus on the entrance exam.
• Educated in a non-English system (China, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, MENA): Assume you'll need IELTS 5.5–6.5 or TOEFL 61–80 depending on school and level. UP's 5.5 / 500 threshold is the gentlest among the schools that publish numbers; Ateneo's graduate 6.5 is the stiffest we verified.
• Graduate applicants everywhere: Check the exemption lists before booking a test date. A recognized prior degree from the right country can save you the fee entirely — and if your degree is from the Philippines itself, every school we reviewed waives the test outright.
• Retakers and long-cycle applicants: Watch score expiry. Ateneo will not accept TOEFL or IELTS results older than two years, so if your application slips a cycle, budget for a fresh sitting rather than assuming an old certificate still counts.
• Not ready for either? The Philippines' large ESL industry exists precisely for this — many students do an English program on an SSP first, then apply for degree admission. Weigh that against going straight to a 9(f) student visa once admitted.

English requirements are the easy part of the paperwork; the immigration side is where applications actually stall. Once you have an acceptance letter, the full requirements rundown for international students covers what comes next — starting with the tourist-to-student-visa conversion. And whether the Philippines is the right fit at all is a fair question we take on in is the Philippines good for international students?

Sources

• Foreign Admission — University of the Philippines Diliman
• First Year International Applicants — Ateneo de Manila University
• Requirements for Graduate Admission, International Applicants — Ateneo de Manila University (PDF)
• Graduate Admissions, International Applicants — De La Salle University
• Admission Policies and Procedures — University of Santo Tomas
• International Student Admission Requirements — University of San Carlos
• Admissions FAQ — Brent International School Manila