TL;DR: Based on recent PRC data, the top nursing schools with 100+ examinees include Saint Louis University (100%), West Visayas State University (100%), Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan (100%), Cebu Doctors' University (100%), and University of Santo Tomas (100%) from the November 2025 NLE. University of Pangasinan led the May 2025 exam with a 99.16% rate.
Introduction
Choosing a nursing school is one of the biggest decisions you will make in your healthcare career. While campus facilities, tuition costs, and location all matter, there is one metric that cuts through the noise: the NLE passing rate.
The Professional Regulation Commission publishes performance-of-schools data after every Nursing Licensure Examination, ranking institutions by how many of their graduates passed. Schools that consistently post high passing rates tend to have rigorous curricula, experienced faculty, strong clinical partnerships, and effective board exam preparation programs.
This guide compiles actual PRC data from the most recent NLE administrations to rank the Philippines' top-performing nursing schools. We focus on schools with at least 100 examinees, per PRC's recognition criteria, to filter out statistical flukes from small sample sizes.
What a BSN in the Philippines Actually Is
Before comparing passing rates, it helps to know what every one of these schools is legally required to deliver, because the curriculum is not left to each institution to invent.
Nursing schools in the Philippines all run the same degree under the same national standard: CHED Memorandum Order No. 15, series of 2017, the Policies, Standards and Guidelines for the Bachelor of Science in Nursing program. The CMO states the degree is conferred on completion of "at least four-year BSN program" at an institution recognised by the Commission on Higher Education, and that a Philippine BSN sits at Level 6 of the Philippine Qualifications Framework.
The curriculum, by the numbers
CHED's sample curriculum in CMO 15 totals 192 units across four years:
| Component | Units |
|---|---|
| General education courses | 36 |
| PE and NSTP 1 & 2 | 14 |
| Major courses | 17 |
| Professional courses | 125 |
| Total | 192 |
Institutions may design their own curricula to fit their context, but they have to meet these minimums, and any program innovation goes to CHED for prior review first.
Clinical hours are the real workload
The part that separates nursing from most other degrees is Related Learning Experience (RLE), the supervised skills-laboratory and clinical component threaded through all four years. CMO 15 recommends 53 RLE units in total, split across 17 skills-laboratory units and 36 clinical units, and it defines one RLE unit as 51 hours. That works out to roughly 2,700 hours of supervised practice before graduation, spread across health assessment, fundamentals, community health nursing, maternal and child care, medical-surgical care, psychiatric nursing, care of the older person, disaster nursing, leadership, and a capstone Intensive Nursing Practicum in hospital and community settings.
A separate 7 units, or 357 hours, of science and informatics laboratory sits outside that total, covering biochemistry, anatomy and physiology, microbiology and parasitology, nutrition with diet therapy, and nursing informatics.
Supervision ratios and hospital requirements are mandated too
CMO 15 caps faculty-to-student ratios for both skills laboratory and hospital or community clinicals at 1:8 in the second semester of first level and 1:10 for levels II through IV. It also requires every nursing program to have an adequate base hospital as its prime clinical learning resource, and sets what that hospital must be:
- Currently accredited by the DOH Bureau of Licensing and Regulation as a Level II hospital (tertiary care, teaching, training)
- An authorised bed capacity of 100 beds with an annual average occupancy rate of 80 percent
- Located within the same region as the nursing school, and within Metro Manila for Metro Manila schools
- 60 percent of total bed capacity made available for student RLE
- Operating under a master rotation plan covering every school using it
Specialty rotations happen at affiliation hospitals under a notarised Contract of Affiliation, and cross-regional affiliations are not allowed unless the specialty simply does not exist in the region.
This is why two schools with identical tuition can produce very different NLE outcomes. The paper curriculum is the same everywhere. The base hospital, the affiliation contracts, and whether the school actually holds those supervision ratios are not.
November 2025 NLE: Record-Breaking Results
The November 2025 PNLE posted a historic 90.04% national passing rate — the highest in NLE history — with 40,692 out of 45,192 examinees passing. Twenty-one schools achieved a perfect 100% passing rate with at least 100 examinees.
Top Performing Schools (November 2025 NLE — 100+ Examinees)
| Rank | School | Passers/Takers | Passing Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Saint Louis University | 242/242 | 100% |
| 1 | West Visayas State University | ~300/~300 | 100% |
| 1 | Xavier University – Ateneo de Cagayan | ~200/~200 | 100% |
| 1 | Cebu Doctors' University | ~150/~150 | 100% |
| 1 | University of Santo Tomas | ~400/~400 | 100% |
| 1 | Angeles University Foundation | ~120/~120 | 100% |
| 1 | Velez College | ~100/~100 | 100% |
| 1 | Bicol University – Legazpi | ~100/~100 | 100% |
| 1 | Central Mindanao University | ~100/~100 | 100% |
| 1 | Saint Paul University – Iloilo | ~100/~100 | 100% |
| 11 | Far Eastern University – Manila | ~590/~593 | 99.82% |
| 12 | Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila | 197/198 | 99.49% |
| 13 | Our Lady of Fatima University | 3,467/3,714 | 93.32% |
Note: Exact taker counts for some 100% schools are approximate based on available PRC data. OLFU produced the largest total number of passers (3,467) among all 477 participating schools.
May 2025 NLE: Top Schools
The May 2025 exam had a tougher 64.39% national passing rate — PRC reported 6,935 out of 10,770 examinees passing across 18 testing centres — making top school performance even more impressive:
| Rank | School | Passers/Takers | Passing Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | University of Pangasinan | 354/357 | 99.16% |
| 2 | Saint Paul University – Tuguegarao | 186/188 | 98.94% |
| 3 | Gordon College | 115/117 | 98.29% |
| 4 | FEU-NRMF | ~100/~102 | 98.00% |
| 5 | Holy Trinity University | ~70/~73 | 95.89% |
| 6 | Universidad de Zamboanga | ~80/~85 | 94.12% |
| 7 | Medical College of Northern Philippines | ~105/~116 | 90.52% |
| 8 | Lyceum Northwestern University | ~87/~102 | 85.29% |
Consistently Top-Performing Schools (Multi-Year Analysis)
Some schools perform well in a single exam cycle but falter in others. The truly elite nursing programs deliver consistent results across multiple years. Based on data from 2023-2025 NLE administrations, these schools stand out:
Tier 1: Near-Perfect Consistency
- West Visayas State University — 100% passing rate for six consecutive years. WVSU also produces a disproportionate number of topnotchers, including 36 in November 2025 alone. Widely considered the premier state university for nursing in the Philippines.
- Saint Louis University — Consistently posts 95-100% passing rates with 8 topnotchers in November 2025. Baguio-based institution known for its rigorous nursing program.
- University of Santo Tomas — Asia's oldest university maintains a nursing program that regularly achieves 95%+ passing rates.
Tier 2: Excellent and Reliable
- Xavier University – Ateneo de Cagayan — Strong performance in Mindanao, regularly achieving 95-100%.
- Cebu Doctors' University — Visayas leader with consistent top performance.
- Far Eastern University – Manila — Regularly posts 95%+ with a large examinee pool.
- University of Pangasinan — Emerged as a powerhouse, especially in the May exam cycle.
Tier 3: High Volume, High Performance
- Our Lady of Fatima University — The largest nursing school in the Philippines by examinee count. While its percentage may not always be the highest, OLFU produces more licensed nurses than any other school in the country (3,467 in November 2025) and consistently beats the national passing rate.
What Top Nursing Schools Have in Common
- Rigorous clinical training — Top schools maintain strong hospital partnerships that give students extensive hands-on experience before graduation.
- Integrated board exam prep — Many top schools build NLE preparation into the senior year curriculum rather than treating it as an afterthought.
- Low student-to-faculty ratios — Smaller class sizes in clinical and lab courses allow for more personalized instruction.
- Experienced nurse-educators — Faculty who have worked in clinical settings bring real-world knowledge to the classroom.
- Strong alumni networks — Graduates of top schools often come back as preceptors, creating a virtuous cycle of mentorship.
How to Use This Data
When choosing a nursing school, NLE passing rate is critical — but it is not the only factor. Consider these alongside the numbers:
- Location and cost — A 100% school in Baguio may not make sense if you live in Davao and cannot afford the relocation.
- Clinical affiliations — Which hospitals does the school partner with? Government hospitals? Private tertiary hospitals?
- Tuition — State universities like WVSU and Bicol University offer free tuition under the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act, while private schools like UST and CDU charge significantly more.
- Exam volume — A school with 100% on 100 takers is impressive. A school with 93% on 3,700 takers (like OLFU) is a logistical achievement.
What a US-Based Applicant Must Check First
If you are researching nursing schools in the Philippines from the United States, whether for yourself, a returning family member, or a child you plan to send home for a degree, the passing-rate table is not where you start. Four checks come first, in this order.
1. Confirm the program is CHED-recognised, not just operating. CMO 15 s. 2017 conditions the BSN degree on completion of a program at an institution "duly recognized by the Commission on Higher Education." Government recognition is a specific status, distinct from a permit to operate, and it is what makes your transcript usable later. Ask the school for its CHED recognition for the BSN program by number and verify it with CHED rather than accepting a marketing claim.
2. Read the school's NLE record across cycles, not one exam. CHED does not treat licensure performance as a bragging metric; it treats it as a compliance threshold. Under CMO 15, a nursing program whose average licensure passing percentage over three consecutive years falls to 46-60 percent gets a warning and a CHED monitoring visit within two years; 31-45 percent means probation for phase-out and a monitoring visit within one year; and below 30 percent means the program is ordered to stop admissions with gradual phase-out. A school sitting near those thresholds is a school whose program may not exist by the time your relative graduates.
3. Inspect the base hospital, not the campus. The classroom is the same everywhere; the clinical exposure is not. Ask which DOH-accredited Level II hospital serves as the base hospital, how far it is from campus, and how many other schools rotate through it under the master rotation plan. A base hospital shared by six schools delivers thinner hands-on time than the bed count suggests.
4. Map your US licensure path before, not after, enrolment. A Philippine BSN plus a PRC licence does not automatically convert into a US registered nurse licence. The Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools runs the CGFNS Certification Program for internationally educated first-level general nurses, built on three components: a credentials evaluation covering secondary education, nursing licensure and program completion; the CGFNS Qualifying Exam, a 165-item computer-based test given four times a year; and English language proficiency evidence. CGFNS states that roughly two-thirds of US state boards require passing that exam for NCLEX-RN eligibility, and that passing it also satisfies the nursing knowledge requirement for a VisaScreen certificate. Requirements differ by state board, so check the specific state you intend to practise in before you pick a school.
Our companion guides go deeper on the last point: see Philippine nursing to NCLEX for the licensure pathway and nursing in the Philippines for international students if the applicant is not a Philippine citizen. For the degree itself, our BS Nursing guide covers admission and coursework, and nursing school tuition in the Philippines covers cost.
Regional Breakdown: Best Nursing Schools by Area
If location is a deciding factor, here are the standout schools in each major region:
National Capital Region (NCR)
University of Santo Tomas, Far Eastern University, Our Lady of Fatima University, and Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila are the strongest Manila-based options. UST and FEU regularly achieve 99-100%, while OLFU produces the highest volume of passers in the country.
Cordillera Administrative Region
Saint Louis University in Baguio is the clear leader — 100% in November 2025 with 8 topnotchers. A cold-weather campus with a rigorous nursing program.
Western Visayas
West Visayas State University in Iloilo is arguably the best nursing school in the Philippines by consistency, posting 100% for six consecutive years. As a state university, WVSU offers free tuition.
Central Visayas
Cebu Doctors' University and Velez College lead in Cebu. Both achieved 100% in the November 2025 NLE.
Northern Mindanao
Xavier University – Ateneo de Cagayan in Cagayan de Oro achieved 100% in November 2025, making it the top nursing school in Mindanao.
Davao Region
University of Mindanao in Davao consistently performs above the national average and is the largest nursing program in Mindanao.
Pangasinan
University of Pangasinan emerged as a surprise top performer, leading the May 2025 NLE with an extraordinary 99.16% passing rate.
Find Your Nursing School
Your nursing school choice will shape the next four years of your life and your NLE outcome. Use real data — not rumors — to make your decision.
Compare nursing schools and NLE passing rates on SchoolFinderPH →
Sources
- CHED Memorandum Order No. 15, s. 2017 — Policies, Standards and Guidelines for the Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) Program (PDF)
- CHED — CMO 15 s. 2017 issuance page
- PRC — November 2025 Nurses Licensure Examination Results
- PRC — February 2026 Nurses Licensure Examination Results
- PRC — May 2025 Philippine Nurses Licensure Examination Results
- CGFNS International — CGFNS Certification Program
School-level figures marked with a tilde in the tables above are approximations drawn from secondary reporting of PRC's Performance of Schools releases, not from PRC's own published counts. Treat exact passer and taker counts for those rows as indicative, and check the current PRC Performance of Schools report for the cycle you care about before making a decision on them. Passing rates change every exam period.
