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University of the Philippines

Encyclopedia : U : UN : UNI : University of the Philippines

This article is about the University of the Philippines System. You may be looking for University of the Philippines, Diliman, University of the Philippines, Los Baños, University of the Philippines, Manila or the other universities of the system. For other meanings, see University of the Philippines (disambiguation).
The seal of UP
The University of the Philippines (Filipino: Unibersidad ng Pilipinas) or U.P. is the state university of the Philippines. It was founded in 1908 and is now composed of seven autonomous constituent universities around the country providing tertiary-level education in almost every field from agriculture, medicine, and law, to the natural and social sciences, engineering, creative writing and fine arts.

U.P. is a highly reputable school for tertiary education and postgraduate studies. Admission alone into the University of the Philippines is very competitive. More than 70,000 senior high school students take the annual U.P. College Admissions Test (UPCAT) in testing centers all over the country. Less than 10% are admitted each year. The top 50 qualifiers receive the highly-coveted U.P. Oblation Scholarships.

U.P. is also noted for its highly politicized student leaders who vigorously promote various causes as well as positions on pressing national issues. These students consistently adhere to the twin values of academic freedom and excellence.

The foremost symbol of U.P. is the Oblation. This is a figure of a naked man, arms outstretched and face pointed upwards, symbolizing selfless dedication and service to the nation. It also depicts the desire of new students for knowledge ("cloth me with knowledge").

U.P. has produced many of the country's pioneering political and social leaders, economists, lawyers, scientists, engineers, medical doctors, creative artists and entrepreneurs. Several Philippine Presidents have also attended courses in the University either as undergraduates or as postgraduate students.

Contents

The autonomous universities

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At present, the University of the Philippines System (U.P.) is composed of seven autonomous universities located in over 10 campuses around the country. U.P. Diliman is the flagship campus of the university and specializes in liberal arts, law, engineering, social sciences, natural sciences, business and economics, and fine arts. U.P. Manila is geared toward medicine and operates the Philippine General Hospital (PGH). U.P. Los Banos specializes in biotechnology, agriculture, and forestry, while U.P. Visayas concentrates mostly on fisheries. The U.P. Open University provides open and distance learning course to working students or mature professionals.

For sporting events, the University of the Philippines is represented by U.P. Diliman in the University Athletics Association of the Philippines (UAAP) while U.P. Los Baños sends athletes to the Region IV assembly of the State Colleges and Universities Athletics Association (SCUAA) which is now known as the Philippine Association of State Universities and Colleges (PASUC)-IV Olympics.

Secondary education

History

The University of the Philippines was established in 1908 by an act of the First Philippine Legislature. Act No. 1870, otherwise known as the University Charter, specifying 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 three initial colleges, the College of Fine Arts, the College of Liberal Arts and the College of Medicine and Surgery occupying buildings distributed along Padre Faura (Ermita district) and R. Hidalgo (Quiapo district) in Manila as well as a School of Agriculture in Los Baños, Laguna. A few years after, 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. It became more necessary for UP to establish more academic programs. The Board of Regents approved the need to look for a larger site. A 493-hectare lot was acquired by the university in Diliman, then a town under the province of Rizal. Construction of the new campus immediately began in 1939.

During World War II, U.P. had to close most of its colleges 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 and Business Administration Building (now Malcolm Hall). After the war, the new Diliman buildings were destroyed massively. UP President Bienvenido Gonzales sought a grant of P13 million from the US-Philippines War Damage Commission. Intensive rehabilitation and construction effort was executed by the university during the post war years. For the first time, an extensive Diliman campus map was created in 1949. The map created what became visions for DIliman’s massive expansion projects. More buildings sprawled across Diliman’s 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), 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 UP's 40th anniversary in February 1949, the Oblation was moved from Manila to Diliman highlighted by the transfer of the Oblation. Administrative offices of U.P. System and its regional units in Manila, Los Baños, Baguio, and Cebu were all housed inside Diliman. General commencement exercises were also held in Diliman for the first time in 1949.

By the 1950s, UP reformulated its approaches to tertiary education by establishing new academic units and degree programs. A 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 old College of Liberal Arts. As a result, UP President Vicente Sinco saw fit to reorganize the college into a University College. The University College offered 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 to serve the country’s political, social and industrial leaders. 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).

By the end of Carlos P. Romulo's term as U.P. President in 1968, UP had also become not only an institution of education, but also a center of research, a veritable think tank, while many of its faculty served as advisers and consultants in the national government. Romulo's administration was marked by the establishment of the Population Institute, the Law Center and the Applied Geodesy and Photogrammetry Training Center in 1964, the Institute of Mass Communications, 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. Despite the period of unrest that followed under the yoke of Martial Law, UP's administrators tried to sustain the university's educational priorities and institutional autonomy. At the height of activism in the university, President Salvador P. Lopez began the system of democratic consultation in which decisions such as promotions and appointments were made through greater participation with faculty and administrative personnel. Lopez also initiated the reorganization of UP into the UP System to decentralize governance. The Los Baños campus was the first to be declared an autonomous unit under a chancellor in November 1972. Giving a boost to UP's growth was the P150 million grant from the national budget for UP's Infrastructure Development Program, which was distributed throughout the System. In Diliman, it funded the construction buildings for the College of Business Administration, 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 continued the reorganization initiative by declaring U.P. Manila, then known as the Health Sciences Center, and U.P. Visayas as autonomous units. At the same time, the prioritization of tourism as a national industry also led to the establishment of the Asian Institute of Tourism (AIT). New centers for research and degree granting units such as the Third World Studies Center (1977), Creative Writing Center, National Engineering Center (1978), UP Extension Program in San Fernando, Pampanga (1979), Institute of Islamic Studies (1973), UP Film Center, National Center for Transportation Studies (1976) were also established. U.P. celebrated its 75th year 1983. President Edgardo Angara's Diamond Jubilee project rallied the alumni all over the country and abroad in a fund-raising blitz which eventually raised P80 million. This money was earmarked for the creation of new professorial chairs and faculty grants. Angara also organized two committees, the Management Review Committee (MRC) and the Committee to Review Academic Programs (CRAP) to evaluate and recommend measures for improving UP's operations. The MRC report led to the wide-ranging reorganization of the UP system, most importantly, the further decentralization of U.P. administration and the declaration of U.P. Diliman as an autonomous unit in 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, the College of Arts and Letters and the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy. As the flagship university, U.P. Diliman leads the rest of the units in sheer size. On April 26, 1982, the University of the Philippines Diliman was formally designated as a constituent university, almost a decade after the reorganization. Diliman being the seat of the UP Administration, the campus was not immediately constituted after 1972 although it was administered, along with the Manila units prior to the organization of the Health Sciences Center, as the flagship constituent university.

Succeeding U.P. Presidents contributed enormously to U.P.’s leadership as the country's de facto national 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 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 is spearheading a Centennial Campaign Fund envisioned to upgrade further the university’s services and facilities in time for U.P.’s 100th year in 2008. Today, the University of the Philippines is composed of seven constituent universities (U.P. Diliman, U.P. Los Baños, U.P. Manila, U.P. Visayas, U.P. Mindanao, U.P. Baguio and the U.P. Open University). Altogether, [The University of the Philippines System] has an aggregate of 48 colleges, more than 53,285 students, 4,135 faculty members and 10,044 non-teaching personnel.

Board of Regents (B.O.R.)

The Board of Regents is the highest decision-making body of the University of the Philippines. It is composed of 12 members.

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 vice 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 concurrent with their functions as committee chairpersons. The president of the University of the Philippines Alumni Association (UPAA) is concurrently serving as the alumni regent concurrent with the functions of his office. Students, represented by the General Assembly of Student Councils (GASC), and faculty members of UP nominate their own representatives- the student regent and the faculty regent, respectively- in the Board of Regents.

The remaining five members of the Board of Regents are nominated into the position by the President of the Philippines.

As of today, the members of the U.P.-B.O.R. are as follows: Honorable Carlito S. Puno, Chairman Honorable Emerlinda R. Roman, Vice-Chairman Honorable Juan M. Flavier, Member (Chairman, Senate Committee on Higher Education) Honorable Cynthia Villar, Member (Chairman, House Committee on Higher Education) Honorable Jaime S. de los Santos, Member (President, UP Alumni Association) Honorable Abraham F. Sarmiento, Member Honorable Bai Fatima Palileo-Sinsuat, Member Honorable Nelia T. Gonzalez, Member Honorable Edmundo M. Varona, Member Honorable Romulo G. Davide, Member Honorable Roland G. Simbulan, Member (Faculty Regent) Honorable Ken Leonard B.Ramos, Member (Student Regent)

Secretary of the University and the Board of Regents is Dr. Lourdes E. Abadingo, professor of Political Science in department of Social Sciences, UP Manila

Presidents of the University of the Philippines

The president of the University of the Philippines is being elected on 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 current president of U.P. is Dr. Emerlinda R. Roman, 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 will lead the university in the celebration of its centennial in 2008.

Chancellors of the Autonomous Universities

Each autonomous 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.

International affiliations and memberships

See also

External links

[# see above]

 

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