In the face of globalization and other recent developments, flagship universities in developing countries must deal with significant challenges to come up with new strategies to serve their respective countries better. They have to confront the issue of international university ranking and its implication on social relevance. They have to remain at the forefront of research as research universities and must lead in promoting internationalization of higher education. More importantly, flagship universities must engage actively in industry-academe-government collaboration as a necessary approach towards strengthening their nations’ innovation systems. This paper is at best conceptual and takes a cursory look at the role of flagship universities in developing countries, citing the case of the University of the Philippines and its strategy towards fulfilling its role as the country’s only national university.