A. Brief History of UP

Brief History of UP

The University of the Philippines was established on 18 June 1908 by Act No. 1870 “to provide advanced instruction in literature, philosophy, the sciences and arts, and to give professional and technical training” to every qualified student regardless of “age, sex, nationality, religious belief, or political affiliation.”

The first three academic units organized were the College of Fine Arts, the College of Medicine and Surgery and the College of Agriculture.

Throughout its history, UP played a leading role in responding to the needs of the nation, stressing academic excellence and quality learning. This role finds expression in the University’s principal functions, namely, instruction, research and public service.

On 29 April 2008, Republic Act No. 9500 known as “The University of the Philippines Charter of 2008” was signed into law, amending Act No. 1870, by then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. UP was declared as the national university and mandated to “perform its unique and distinctive leadership in higher education and development.” The University of the Philippines was redefined as the UP System composed of constituent universities.

UP has eight (8) constituent universities (CU) spread in twenty-one (21) campuses located in the cities of Quezon, Manila, Taguig and Muntinlupa in the National Capital Region and in the provinces of Benguet, Tarlac, Pampanga, Zambales, Aurora, Laguna, Iloilo, Cebu, Leyte, Davao del Sur, Davao del Norte and South Cotabato.

1) UP Diliman (UPD), the University’s flagship campus, offers arts and sciences programs as well as professional programs such as engineering, law and accounting. It also has satellite campuses in Clark Freeport Zone and Olongapo City. On 23 April 1982, UP Diliman was declared as the 4th CU and started its operation as a CU on April 26 of the same year.

2) UP Los Baños (UPLB) started out as the College of Agriculture in 1909. It is one of the first UP units to be organized after 1908 and the oldest agricultural and forestry school in the country. In 1972, UPLB became the 1st CU of the UP System pursuant to Presidential Decree No. 58. UPLB is expanding its operations to the South of the country by establishing its UP Professional Schools for Agriculture and the Environment in Panabo City, Davao del Norte by 2019.

3) UP Manila (UPM) is the country’s center of excellence in the health sciences, including health professional education, training and research. It was established originally on 01 December 1905 as the Philippine Medical School and later called as the UP College of Medicine and Surgery on 10 June 1907. It was renamed as the Health Sciences Center on 17 June 1967 and declared as autonomous member on 24 January 1979. On 23 March 1983, UP Manila was created as the 2nd CU of the UP System.

c) The 3rd SHS extension campus was launched on 15 June 2010 in Koronadal,

South Cotabato. The University has set up another extension campus of UP

Manila’s SHS to bring medical and health education closer to remote areas of the Philippines in need of trained health care professionals.

4) UP Visayas (UPV) was formally established as the 3rd CU of the UP System in 1979. Its main campus is located in Miag-ao, Iloilo. Other campuses are in Iloilo City and Tacloban City in Leyte. A campus in Barangay Sta. Elena, north of Tacloban City, is being developed to be the new site of UPV Tacloban College. UPV is noted for its College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences.

5) UP Open University (UPOU) evolved from the UP Distance Education Program. Its creation was approved by the Board of Regents (BOR) on 23 February 1995 as the 5th CU of the UP System. As of 31 December 2019, UPOU has three (3) existing Mega Learning Hubs (MLH) located in Diliman, Quezon City, Cebu and Davao City equipped with facilities that serve as venues for students here and abroad to enhance self-learning.

6) UP Mindanao was created on 20 February 1995 under Republic Act No. 7889. A resolution of the BOR adopted UP Mindanao as the 6th CU of the UP System on 23 March 1995 and started its operations on June 1996. Its campus is situated in Barangay Mintal, Tugbok District, Davao City.

7) UP Baguio started out as an Arts and Sciences College and was inaugurated as a regional degree-granting unit of UP Diliman in 1961. The College was formally established as the 7th CU of the UP System as approved by the BOR on 02 December 2002. As the hub of many cultural activities in Northern Luzon, UP Baguio has contributed to the development of the arts and the nurturing of the region’s cultural heritage. 8) The elevation of UP Cebu to the status as 8th CU of the UP System was officially approved on the 1321st meeting of the BOR held on 27 October 2016. In response to its elevation to CU status, UP Cebu is prepared to fulfill UP’s mandate of leadership in higher education and governance.

• UP Professional Schools Cebu (UPPS-Cebu), located in the Cebu South Road

Properties (SRP) in Cebu City, was inaugurated on 20 January 2013. UPPS-

Cebu is currently hosting UP Cebu graduate degree programs in Business

Administration, Education, Computer Science and Environmental Studies.

a) In 1976, the University established the Institute of Health Sciences (IHS) in

Tacloban, Leyte which was transferred to Palo, Leyte and renamed as the

School of Health Sciences (SHS) in 1989. It aims to develop communityoriented health workers who would return to render service in the underserved places of origin from where they were recruited.

b) The 2nd SHS extension campus located at the northeastern region of Luzon was inaugurated on 21 July 2008 in honor of the University’s centennial anniversary. The SHS extension campus in Baler, Aurora aims to solve the mass exodus of doctors, nurses and midwives for greener pastures abroad and the maldistribution of the available health manpower in the country

The UP Bonifacio Global City (UP-BGC) was created on a 4,300-square-meter property in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City donated by the Bases Conversion and Development Authority on 19 July 2011. A nine-level school building was built and donated on March 2016 by the SM Investments Corporation and named the Henry Sy Sr. Hall, after the SM Group patriarch.

The UP-BGC is geared to host the program offerings of various CUs bringing quality graduate and professional education closer to those working and living in the southern Metro Manila areas. Currently, UP Diliman is offering the following graduate programs at the UP BGC, namely: 1) College of Law's Juris Doctor (evening program); 2) Virata School of Business's Master of Business Administration (parttime/evening) and Master of Science in Finance; and 3) School of Statistics’s Professional Master in Data Science (Analytics).

From the education of ordinary Filipinos under Americans at the time of UP President Bartlett to its journey onto another century under the stewardship of UP President Concepción, the University has produced: 39 National Scientists; 40 National Artists; two (2) National Social Scientists; seven (7) out of the 16 Presidents of the Republic; 15 Chief Justices of the Supreme Court; and, tens of thousands of doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers serving in the country and abroad, as well as hundreds of thousands of graduates in other academic fields.1

By 2017, when Danilo L. Concepción became the 21st UP President, the University of the Philippines had grown into a massive University System. Under its Charter of 2008, UP is mandated to perform its multiple roles: as a teaching university, a graduate university, a research university, a public service university, and as a regional and global university. Underpinning the expansion of its role in national development, however, is the University’s unchanging commitment to its guiding principles of honor and excellence in the service of the country—a true “University for the Filipino.”2

1 “University History.” University of the Philippines, accessed 20 August 2020, https://www.up.edu.ph/aboutup/university-history/. 2 “University History”.

Compiled by: UPS-Budget Office – Planning Services Division 7