Philippines (University of the Philippines)

On June 18, 1908, a hundred and twelve years ago, the University of the Philippines (UP) was founded through Act No. 1870 of the Philippine Assembly. UP was the result of the recommendation of Secretary of Public Instruction, William Morgan Shuster to the Philippine Commission, the upper house of the Philippine Assembly. It was meant to fill the need to meet the increasing demands for instruction in the higher levels of learning and to provide professional studies in medicine, law, engineering or applied sciences.

Act No. 1870 authorized the Governor General to establish the University in the “city of Manila, or at any point he may deem most convenient.” The UP was to give “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 and political affiliation.” According to UP’s Bulletin No. 1, the University was seen as “the logical outgrowth and culmination of efforts made during the past ten years to establish a complete system of education for the Philippine islands.”

Through the past hundred years, the University of the Philippines has evolved from the pinnacle of the American-established educational system in the country, to a “University for the Filipino” as envisioned by its first president, Murray Simpson Bartlett.