University of the Philippines

The  University of the Philippines (Unibersidad ng Pilipinas in Filipino, commonly abbreviated as U.P. and colloquially referred to as Peyups) is the national university of the Philippines. Founded in 1908 through Act No. 1870 of the first Philippine Legislature, known as the "University Act" by authority of the United States, the University currently provides the largest number of degree programs in the country. Senate Resolution No. 276 of the Senate of the Philippines recognizes the University as "the nation’s premier university". Seven (7) of fifteen (15) Philippine Presidents have attended courses in the University either as undergraduates or as postgraduate students, while 12 Chief Justices of the Supreme Court, 36 out of the 57 National Artists and 34 out of the 35 National Scientists are affiliated with the University.

U.P. has the most National Centers of Excellence and Development among higher education institutions in the country and one of only three schools in Asia that have received institutional recognition in the Ramon Magsaysay Awards.

U.P. is partly subsidized by the Philippine government. Students of the university and its graduates are referred to as  "[Mga] Iskolar ng Bayan"  ("Scholars of the Nation"). This makes admission into the University extremely competitive. In 2006, 70,000 applicants flocked to test centers to take the University of the Philippines College Admission Test (UPCAT) for undergraduate admission. Around 11,000 of the applicants were admitted for the year 2006, an acceptance rate of about 18% for the whole of the UP system.

The symbol of U.P. is the Oblation. This is a figure of a naked man, with arms outstretched and face pointed upwards. The Oblation is based on the second stanza of Jose Rizal's Mi Ultimo Adios.

The year 2008 was proclaimed as the "UP Centennial Year" and the years 1998-2008 as the "University of the Philippines Decade."

History


The University of the Philippines was established on June 18, 1908 an act of the First Philippine Legislature. Act No. 1870, otherwise known as the "University Act", specified the function of the University, which is to provide advanced instruction in literature, philosophy, the sciences, and arts, and to give professional and technical training.

The University began with the establishment of the Philippine Medical School (later incorporated into the University as the College of Medicine and Surgery) in 1905, which started operating in 1907, a year ahead of the rest of the UP System. Together with the College of Fine Arts and the College of Liberal Arts, the College of Medicine occupied buildings distributed along Padre Faura (Ermita district) and R. Hidalgo (Quiapo district) in Manila, the School of Agriculture was in Los Baños. A few years later, the university opened the College of Law and the College of Engineering in Manila, as well as academic units under the College of Agriculture and Forestry in Los Baños. The Board of Regents approved the need to look for a larger site, and a 493-hectare lot was acquired by the university in Diliman, then a town in the province of Rizal. Construction of the new campus began in 1939.

During World War II, most of its colleges had to be closed except the Colleges of Medicine, Pharmacy, and Engineering. Meanwhile, the Japanese Imperial Army occupied two Diliman campus buildings: the College of Liberal Arts Building (now Benitez Hall) and the Colleges of Law (now Malcolm Hall) and Business Administration Building. U.P. President Bienvenido Ma. Gonzalez sought a grant of PHP 13 million from the US-Philippines War Damage Commission. A massive rehabilitation and construction effort was executed during the post war years. For the first time, an extensive Diliman campus master plan and map were created in 1949. More buildings were built across the Diliman campus landscape: the University Library (Gonzalez Hall), the College of Engineering (Melchor Hall), the Women's Residence Hall (now Kamia Residence Hall), the Conservatory of Music (Abelardo Hall and now the College of Music), the Administration Building (Quezon Hall), and the U.P. President's Residence. Most colleges and administration offices were temporarily housed in huts and shelters made of sawali and galvanized iron.

During U.P.'s 40th anniversary in February 1949, central administrative offices of U.P. were moved from Manila to Diliman together with the transfer of the Oblation. Administrative offices and its regional units in Manila, Los Baños, Baguio, and Cebu were all housed in the Diliman campus. General commencement exercises were also held in Diliman for the first time in 1949.

In the 1950s, new academic units and degree programs were established. Another major reform, the General Education (G.E.) Program, was introduced in 1959. The G.E. program became a series of core courses prescribed for all students at the undergraduate level. Most of these courses were being taught at the then College of Liberal Arts. As a result, U.P. President Vicente Sinco saw fit to reorganize the college into a University College, which would offer the core subjects to be taken during the first two years of the undergraduate program. The College of Arts and Sciences and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, on the other hand, offered major courses in the humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences. During President Sinco's term, more institutes and colleges were established. These institutes and colleges include the Institute of Public Administration (1952), the Statistical Center (1953), the Labor Education Center (now the School of Labor and Industrial Relations, established in 1954), the Asian Studies Institute (now the Asian Center, established in 1955), the Institute of Library Science (1961), and the College of Home Economics (1961).

The administration of Carlos P. Romulo was marked by the founding of the Population Institute, the Law Center and the Applied Geodesy and Photogrammetry Training Center in 1964, the Institute of Mass Communication, the College of Business Administration, and the Institute of Planning in 1965, the Computer Center, the Institute for Small-Scale Industries in 1966, the Institute of Social Work and Community Development in 1967 and the Asian Center in 1968.

During the Martial Law period, U.P.'s administrators tried to sustain the university's educational priorities and institutional autonomy. At the height of activism in the university, U.P. President Salvador P. Lopez established a system of democratic consultation in which decisions such as promotions and appointments were made through greater participation by the faculty and administrative personnel. Lopez also reorganized U.P. into the U.P. System. During that period of activism UP Diliman was called the Diliman Republic and elements of the police and the Metrocom stormed the campus during Martial Law. In November 1972, the Los Baños campus was the first to be declared an autonomous unit under a chancellor. A P150-million grant from the national budget boosted U.P.'s Infrastructure Development Program. In Diliman, it funded the construction of buildings for the Colleges of Business Administration and Zoology, the Institute of Small-Scale Industries, the Transport Training Center, and the Coral Laboratory of the Marine Sciences Institute. Kalayaan Residence Hall and housing for low-income employees were also built around this time.

Onofre D. Corpuz declared U.P. Manila, then known as the Health Sciences Center, and U.P. Visayas as autonomous units. At the same time, the Asian Institute of Tourism (AIT) was established in light of the prioritization of tourism as a national industry. New centers for research and degree-granting units such as the Third World Studies Center (1977), Creative Writing Center, National Engineering Center (1978), U.P. Extension Program in San Fernando, Pampanga (1979), which is now in Clark Field, Angeles City, Institute of Islamic Studies (1973), U.P. Film Center, National Center for Transportation Studies (1976) were also established. U.P. celebrated its 75th year 1983. In the same spirit, a U.P. Extension Program in Olongapo was also established in 1984.

Edgardo Angara's Diamond Jubilee project raised P80 million which was earmarked for the creation of new professorial chairs and faculty grants. Angara also organized the Management Review Committee (MRC) and the Committee to Review Academic Programs (CRAP) to evaluate and recommend measures for improving university operations. The MRC report led to a wide-ranging reorganization of the U.P. System, the further decentralization of U.P. administration, and the declaration of U.P. Diliman as an autonomous unit on March 23, 1983. U.P. Baguio was then placed under the supervision of U.P. Diliman. Meanwhile, the College of Arts and Sciences also underwent a reorganization to become three separate colleges: the College of Science (CS), the College of Arts and Letters (CAL), and the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy (CSSP).

As the flagship university, U.P. Diliman led the rest of the units. On April 26, 1982, it was formally designated as a constituent university, almost a decade after the reorganization. Even if Diliman was the seat of the U.P. Administration, the campus was not immediately constituted after 1972 although it was administered, along with the Manila unit prior to the organization of the Health Sciences Center, as a de facto university.

President Jose Abueva introduced the Socialized Tuition Fee Assistance Program (STFAP) in 1987. Abueva also institutionalized a Filipino language policy within the university. President Emil Javier established the creation of U.P. Mindanao at Silicon Gulf, Southern Mindanao, and the U.P. Open University in 1995. President Francisco Nemenzo’s legacy includes the Revitalized General Education Program (RGEP) and the institutionalization of more incentives for research and creative achievements by U.P, faculty members.

President Emerlinda Roman, from the College of Business Administration (CBA), has led a Centennial Campaign Fund to upgrade the university’s services and facilities. Her term of office has been noted for the ascension of several key professors from the CBA to positions of power within the university. Notable among them is U.P. Diliman Chancellor Sergio S. Cao, Assistant Vice President for Planning and Development, Prof. Arthur S. Cayanan, Director of the U.P. System Budget Office, Prof. Joselito G. Florendo, Dr. Lina J. Valcarcel Executive Director, U.P. Provident Fund, Inc. and U.P Foundation, Inc. Executive Director Gerardo B. Agulto.

Centennial Celebration


On January 8, 2008, the University of the Philippines began its centennial celebration. The opening ceremony featured a 100-torch relay to light the eternal flame on the Centennial Cauldron at Quezon Hall. Torches were carried by, among others, Fernando Javier, 100, of Baguio City, the oldest UP alumnus (Civil Engineering from University of the Philippines, Manila, 1933), a 6th-grader from the University of the Philippines Integrated School in U.P. Diliman and UP president Emerlinda Roman, the first woman president of the university. The Centennial Cauldron features three pillars to represent the three core values, and seven flowers representing the seven constituent universities, i.e. UP Manila, UP Diliman (together with UP Pampanga, its extension campus), UP Los Baños, UP Baguio, UP Visayas, UP Mindanao, and UP Open University.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and U.P. issued commemorative P100 U.P. Centennial notes at the BSP Security Plant Complex in Quezon City. The notes appear as four-outs (four uncut pieces) in a folder featuring the signatures of all U.P. presidents including Roman.

Inspired by the U.P. Oblation, the University of the Philippines Alumni Association (UPAA) launched an art exhibit, "100 Nudes/100 Years" featuring the works of nine U.P. alumni national artists.

UPAA 2008 Centennial Yearbook
The University of the Philippines Alumni Association announced its launching of a three-volume UPAA 2008 Centennial Yearbook on June 21, 2008, the UPAA Grand Alumni-Faculty Homecoming and Reunion at the Araneta Coliseum, Cubao, Quezon City. The theme is “UP Alumni: Excellence, Leadership and Service in the Next 100 Years,” with the three cover designs showing the works of National Artists Napoleon Abueva, Abdul Imao, and BenCab, respectively.Chief Justice Reynato Puno is the Yearbook's most distinguished alumnus awardee (among 46 other awardees).

UP Charter of 2008
UP Charter of 2008, Republic Act No. 9500, was signed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo into law on April 29, 2008, at the UP Library Conference Hall in Lahug, Cebu. It aims "to provide both institutional and fiscal autonomy to UP, specifically, to protect student's democratic access and strengthen administration through the recognition of UP system's board of regents and UP Council." The new charter declared UP as the Philippines' national university, giving it "the enhanced capability to fulfill its mission and spread the benefits of knowledge." The new charter will help improve its competitiveness. The newly crowned “national university,” however, needs P 3.6 billion to be at par with other universities in the area.

Centennial UP-Ayala TechnoHub
The centennial P 6 billion 37.5-hectare UP-Ayala TechnoHub, a complex of low-rise buildings, at Commonwealth Avenue, within the 98-hectare UP campus, was constructed on February 16, 2006, and inaugurated on November 22, 2008. It is being developed by the Ayala property company into an information technology and IT-enabled services community to host business process outsourcing (BPO) and technology firms.

Constituent universities
At present, the University of the Philippines System is composed of seven constituent universities (CU) located in 12 campuses around the country.

On September 24, 2010, the UP Board of Regents approved the elevation of the status of UP Visayas Cebu College as an autonomous unit, in preparation for its constituent university status in the next five to seven years.

U.P. Diliman is the flagship campus of the university and offers the most number of courses. The University is negotiating with the Makati City government for the use of one building in the University of Makati.

Each constituent university of UP is headed by a chancellor, who is elected on a three-year term by the Board of Regents. Unlike the president, who is elected on a single six-year term without re-election, the chancellor maybe re-elected for another three-year term but it is upon the discretion of the members of the Board of Regents.

Satellite campuses
The satellite campuses of the different Constituent Universities of the University of the Philippines do not have autonomous status. They are considered extension colleges of their mother unit. However, the Commission on Higher Education considers these campuses as separate units (HEIs) of the UP System.


 * University of the Philippines Diliman Extension Program in Pampanga
 * University of the Philippines Diliman Extension Program in Olongapo
 * University of the Philippines Visayas Cebu College
 * University of the Philippines Visayas Tacloban College
 * University of the Philippines Manila School of Health Sciences in Leyte
 * University of the Philippines Manila School of Health Sciences in Aurora
 * University of the Philippines Manila School of Health Sciences in Koronadal City, South Cotabato

Basic education

 * University of the Philippines Integrated School in U.P. Diliman
 * University of the Philippines Laboratory High School in U.P. Visayas - U.P. Cebu College
 * University of the Philippines Laboratory High School in U.P. Visayas - U.P. Iloilo City
 * University of the Philippines Rural High School in U.P. Los Baños

Presidents of the University of the Philippines
The current President of the University of the Philippines is elected for a single six-year term by the University's twelve-member Board of Regents. As of 2005, two Americans and 17 Filipinos served as President of the University of the Philippines.

The president of U.P. is Dr. Emerlinda R. Román, a professor of business administration and the chancellor of U.P. Diliman prior to her election as president. Roman is the first female president of the University of the Philippines. She led the university in the celebration of its centennial in 2008.

Board of Regents
The governance of the University is vested in the Board of Regents of the University of the Philippines System (or Lupon ng mga Rehente in Filipino) and commonly abbreviated as BOR. The board, with its 12 members, is the highest decision-making body of the U.P. system.

The Chairperson of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) serves as the Board's acting Chairperson while the President of the University of the Philippines is the Co-Chairperson. The Chairpersons of the Committees of Higher Education of the Senate and the House of Representatives are members of the UP Board of Regents which are concurrent with their functions as committee chairpersons.

U.P. students, represented by the General Assembly of Student Councils, nominate a Student Regent. While the Faculty Regent is likewise nominated by the faculty members of the whole University. Alumni are represented by the President of the U.P. Alumni Association. A Staff Regent, representing professional and administrative personnel, was included with the passage of the new UP charter in 2008. The remaining members of the Board of Regents (two of whom are alumni of the University) are nominated into the position by the President of the Philippines.

As of 2010, the members of the Board of Regents of the University of the Philippines System are: :

The Secretary of the University and the Board of Regents is Dr. Lourdes E. Abadingo, Professor of Political Science in the Department of Social Sciences at U.P. Manila.

Academics
The University offers 246 undergraduate degree programs and 362 graduate degree programs, more than any other university in the country. The flagship campus in Diliman offers the largest number of degree programs, and other campuses are known for specific programs. The University has 57 degree-granting units throughout the system, which may be a College, School or Institute that offers an undergraduate or a graduate program. In the Los Baños campus, a separate Graduate School administers the graduate programs in agriculture, forestry, the basic sciences, mathematics and statistics, development economics and management, agrarian studies and human ecology. The School of Public Health at UP Manila has a collaboration with Boston University School of Public Health. This program allows students from Boston University to do a semester of coursework at U.P. Manila as well as an international field practicum in the Philippines. The University has 4,135 faculty, trained locally and abroad with 75% having graduate degrees. The University is one of the three Universities in the Philippines affiliated with the ASEAN University Network, and the only Philippine university to be affiliated with the ASEAN-European University Network and the Association of Pacific Rim Universities.

Budget
The University has the highest financial endowment of all educational institutions in the Philippines. In 2008, the entire University system has a financial subsidy from the national government of about PHP 6 billion. The total expenditure for the same year, however, is PHP 7.2 billion, or approximately PHP 135,000 per student.

Rankings
The University was ranked 63rd in the 2009 QS Asian University Rankings, the highest ranked Philippine university. It was ranked 254th (2009), 276th (2008), 398th (2007), and 299th (2006) in the Times Higher Education Supplement World University Rankings. In the Asiaweek's Best Universities in Asia last published in 2000, it was ranked 48th. In 2006, the University, through President Emerlinda Román, has expressed that it does not want to participate in the THES Ranking, but was included in 2007, 2008, and 2009 with an incomplete academic profile. In the national rankings based on cumulative data from 1991-2001 of average passing rates in all courses of all Philippine colleges and universities in the Board tests, U.P. Diliman, U.P. Los Baños and U.P. Manila emerged as numbers one, two and three respectively. The study was done by the Professional Regulation Commission and the Commission on Higher Education.

General Education Program
The General Education Program, was introduced in 1959 and formed core courses prescribed for all students at the undergraduate level. The General Education Program is the Revitalized General Education Program (abbreviated as RGEP), which was approved by the Board of Regents in 2001. The RGEP offers courses in three domains (Arts and Humanities, Mathematics Science and Technology and Social Sciences and Philosophy) and gives students the freedom to choose the general education subjects in these domains that they would like to take. It has led to the development of courses unique to the campuses. Examples of these courses include NASC 10 (Forests as Source of Life) in Los Baños, Geography 1 (Places and Landscapes in a Changing World) in Diliman, and History 3 (History of Philippine Ethnic Minorities) in Baguio.

Library System
The University library system contains the largest collections of agricultural, medical, veterinary and animal science materials in the Philippines. The library system has a collection of Filipiniana material, serials and journals in both electronic and physical forms and UPIANA materials in its archives. It also has a collection of documents of student, political, and religious organizations advocating political, economic, and social changes during the Marcos administration in the Diliman library.

The University is one of the five governmental agencies involved with the Philippine eLib, a nation-wide information resource-sharing consortium, to which it provides access to 758,649 of its bibliographic records.

The library was established in 1922 in the Manila campus and was considered as one of the best in Asia prior to the Second World War. The collection, containing almost 150,000 volumes, was destroyed when Japanese troops stormed the library during the war, leaving only a handful of books intact. Gabriel Bernardo, the Librarian of the University who built the collection, described the loss as "intellectual famine." Bernardo would later rebuild the library in the Diliman campus. The University has likewise been one of the pioneers in library science education in the country. Library courses were first offered under the College of Liberal Arts under James Alexander Robertson in 1914. In 1961, the Institute of Library Science was established in Diliman and a year later, the institute established the country's first graduate program in Library Science.

Admissions and financial aid

 * See also University of the Philippines College Admission Test

Undergraduate admissions
Being a state university, "selection is based on intellectual and personal preparedness of the applicant irrespective of sex, religious belief and political affiliation." Admission into the University's undergraduate programs is very competitive, with over 60,000 students taking the exam every year, with about 11,000 being accepted, an admission rate of about 18%. Admission to a program is usually based on the result of the UPCAT, University Predicted Grade, which is an average of grades obtained during high school and sometimes, a quota set by the unit offering the program. The University also maintains a Policy of Democratization which aims to "make the UP studentry more representative of the nation's population." The UPCAT also allows students to enter Intarmed, the University's accelerated 7-year medicine curriculum, one of the two entry points into the program. Transferring to the University from other constituent units or schools outside the system are determined by the degree-granting unit that offers the program or the course, not by the university's Office of Admissions.

Socialized Tuition and Financial Assistance Program
The Socialized Tuition and Financial Assistance Program (also referred to as the "Iskolar ng Bayan" Program) (STFAP) was implemented in response to the increase in tuition in 1989. The program, proposed in 1988 by U.P. President Jose Abueva and mandated by the President and Congress of the Philippines, called for a radical departure from the old fee and scholarship structure of UP, resulting in tremendous benefits for low-income and disadvantaged Filipino students. The STFAP is divided into four basic components; Subsidized Education, Socialized Tuition, Scholarships and Student Assistantships. In the 1989 STFAP, income groups are divided into nine brackets, with one having the full benefits. In December 2006, the Board of Regents approved a restructured STFAP, along with the increase in tuition and other fees that will apply for incoming freshmen.

The Revised STFAP reduces the brackets from nine to five, and will supposedly increase the number of students receiving tuition subsidy and increase stipend rates and coverage. However, critics of the restructured STFAP argue that the data used in the formulation of the revised program is not an acceptable prediction of a student’s family income, that some of the bracket assignments are flawed and that the program fails to address or revise student assistantship programs.

University symbols

 * See also University of the Philippines Official Seal, U.P. Oblation and U.P. Naming Mahal

The University's colors are maroon and forest green. Maroon was chosen to represent the fight for freedom, as Maroon is also a name of a Jamaican tribe who were successful in defending their freedom from slavery and their independence from English conquerors for more than 100 years. The colors are also immortalized in the University's hymn; Luntian at pula, Sagisag magpakailanman.... In 2004, the University's seal and the Oblation were registered in the Philippine Intellectual Property Office to prevent unauthorized use and multiplication of the symbols for the centennial of the University in 2008. The centennial logo was used in visual materials and presentations of the centennial activities and events of the University. The logo, which was designed by Ringer Manalang, is composed of the Oblation, the sablay and a highlighted Philippine map.

UP Naming Mahal
U.P. Naming Mahal, or UP Our Beloved is the University's hymn. The melody for the song was written by Nicanor Abelardo, an alumnus and former faculty member of the U.P. College of Music. Abelardo is considered to be one of the Philippines' greatest musicians. Because of the original scale of the hymn in B flat major, which is too high for the usual voice, UP Conservatory of Music (now UP College of Music) professors Hilarion Rubio and Tomas Aguirre reset the music in G major.

The English lyrics (entitled as "U.P. Beloved") was taken from a poem by Teogenes Velez, a Liberal Arts student. The translation to Filipino was a composite from seven entries in a contest held by the University. The judges did not find any of the seven translations as fully satisfactory.

Sablay
The University uses unique academic regalia. Instead of the traditional academic dress composed of a cap, hood and gown, some constituent units prescribe the Sablay. The Sablay is a sash joined in front by an ornament and embroidered or printed with the University's initials in Alibata and running geometric motifs of indigenous Philippine tribes. It is traditionally worn over a white or ecru dress for females or an ecru barong Tagalog and black pants for males, although there has been instances wherein the Sablay is worn over other indigenous clothing. Candidates for graduation wear the sablay at the right shoulder, and is then moved to the left shoulder after the President of the University confers their degree, similar to the moving of the tassel of the academic cap. Not all units have adopted the Sablay, the Manila and Los Baños campuses still prescribe the usual cap and gown.

UP ROTC


The University of the Philippines ROTC Unit is the pioneer of the Reserve Officer Training Corps in the Philippines. It was the idea of Field Marshall Douglas MacArthur. With the activation of the UP ROTC Unit in 1912, several State and Private Universities-Colleges soon followed, activating ROTC units under the Army of the Philippine Commonwealth.

Although the Philippines had no significant military involvement during World War I, the conflagration made the Philippine Government realize the need for a good reserve force of able-bodied Filipinos trained in the art of war. With the formal organization of the UP DMST on March 17, 1922, military drill was superseded by the term "military science and tactics".

Military training in the University of the Philippines started at the old Padre Faura Campus when it was made a required subject for all able-bodied male students in all colleges, institutes, and schools of the University. During the early years after its inception, military training in the University was mainly an infantry unit. After a few years, specialized units were established that made UP ROTC distinct for its military proficiency. UP produced precision FA Gunners through its Field Artillery Unit. Another distinguished UP ROTC Unit is the Rayadillo Honor Guard Battalion. It was created by Carlos P. Romulo (UPROTC/UP Vanguard Class 1918) during his term as UP President. The Rayadillo unit is famous for its patriotic Katipunero uniforms, silent drill exhibitions, arrival honors and formal military ceremonies rendered for visiting foreign heads of states and military officers.

Notable alumni

 * See List of University of the Philippines people