University

Aquinas is now ‘University of Santo Tomas-Legazpi’

The Dominican University of Bicol’s name change to UST-Legazpi is now official.

LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines — Bicol is now home to a UST campus.

The 70-year old Dominican University of Bicol officially adopted the name of the four centuries old top Philippine university, University of Santo Tomas.

Aquinas University of Legazpi will now be called the “University of Santo Tomas-Legazpi,” as Dominican educational institutions in the country proceed with the planned integration of these schools into one campus system.

The name change became official on September 12, 2017 as the approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) came in.

The University’s top official, Fr. Ernesto Arceo, O.P., said in a report by The Varsitarian that the “collaborative integration” with the Royal and Pontifical University is aimed at improving the quality of education in the Bicol campus through bench-marking, curricular alignment and resource sharing.

UST Legazpi, however, will maintain its administrative and fiscal independence from the main campus in Manila, retaining the current organizational structure of the school and its Board of Trustees. (READ: Bicol’s Aquinas U now UST Legazpi, to remain an ‘independent’ campus)

The University is the second UST satellite campus to be made official after UST Angelicum (then Angelicum College of Quezon City) on June 29 this year.

UST Legazpi is one of the Dominican schools who signed a memorandum of intent (MOI) to ‘integrate’ last December 2014, with University of Santo Tomas Manila, Angelicum College Quezon City, and Angelicum School Iloilo. The Legazpi campus’ name change was later approved by the UST Council of Regents in December 2016.

The said schools, along with two more planned new campuses in Sta. Rosa, Laguna and General Santos will make up the UST campus system. ■