The University of the Philippines is a network of seven universities and one autonomous college scattered across the island nation. Many of its constituent universities have more than one campus of their own.
UP Diliman, 10km north east of Manila, is comfortably the largest, boasting as many as half of UP’s students over the years.
UP Manila, in the heart of the nation’s capital, specialises in health sciences, as the successor to the Philippine Medical School, founded in 1905. Manila is one of the largest, most cosmopolitan and most frenzied cities in Asia, buzzing with nightclubs, lively restaurants and bars.
The main focuses of UP Los Baños, south east of Manila, are forestry, agriculture and environmental studies. It has a strong bioengineering and plant breeding legacy and also owns the 10,500-acre Mt. Makiling Forest Reserve
Established in 1995, UP Open University, the distance learning leader which runs a range of online courses for home and overseas students, has three faculties, 10 learning centres and 19 testing centres on several of the Philippines’ 7000 islands.
UP Visayas takes a special interest in fisheries and marine sciences, being situated on the south coast of Panay Island.
UP Mindanao, in the far south of the country, puts extra emphasis on architecture and biotechnology programmes.
The newest university in the chain, UP Baguio, founded in 2002, enjoys a reputation as a national leader in sciences, mathematics and humanities.
UP’s autonomous college, UP Cebu, used to be part of UP Visayas but became independent in order to focus on business and IT courses.
