Best Universities in Tuguegarao City

SPUP campus. Personal photo taken last May 2011

 By Chester B Cabalza

Blogger's Notes:
Commentary of an Academic (Copyright @ 2013 by Chester B Cabalza. All Rights Reserved).

Wisdom builds

Wisdom builds goes the motto of the University of Saint Louis Tuguegarao or USLT, formerly known as Saint Louis College of Tuguegarao or SLCT, a premiere private Roman Catholic school in Cagayan Valley.

Founded in 1945 by Belgian missionaries and currently run by a congregation with Latin-inspired name, Congregatio Immaculati Cordis Mariae or CICM, which traces its roots from the defunct Ateneo de Tuguegarao.

As a back story, cheesy buzz is circulating around the small city of the Ibanags that wealthy alumni of the then Jesuit school is planning to resurrect the old male school to rival USLT and the other prestigious academic institution in town, Saint Paul University Philippines (SPUP).

This I heard myself in Coconut Palace in Manila during special meetings or gatherings among fellow Ibanags and from few active alumni members of the school.  

Home of the topnotchers, proudly banners my high school alma mater, evidenced by the increasing topnotch students the university produces in various national board examinations. It has gauged a niche as the best school of choice for accountancy and engineering in Region II.

Fortunately, the long tradition of academic excellence ingrained among its expanding alumni and current students is etched on its hymn to train the body and mind of the entire studentry.  The Louisian spirit spreads its wisdom from Baguio city where Saint Louis University (SLU) is known to be its mother school or university of the Louisian brand, cascading its brightness to other multihued St Louis campuses in San Fernando city in La Union, Cebu city, and Bacolod city. 

Center of excellence

The Saint Paul University Philippines or SPUP fortified its academic spot in the region as the center of excellence on education.

SPUP drew its simple beginnings from the voyage along the mighty Cagayan river of the pioneering six sisters of the Saint Paul Chartres Congregation from Nueva Segovia to establish a Catholic school in the old town of Tuguegarao during the American period in 1907.

It is one year older than the University of the Philippines (UP). SPUP was granted a university status by the Philippine government in 1982 and enjoys full autonomy status by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) since 2002.

The Paulinians in Tuguegarao are proud of their centennial culture of academic excellence. Being the first Catholic university in Asia to be ISO 9001 certified it has only symbolized the strong commitment of SPUP to give quality education to the people of Tuguegarao. Undoubtedly, the university continuously believes in its mission and vision to help in nation-building through quality education.

This mother university of St Paul schools founded in Tuguegarao is known for producing top notch nurses working in different parts of the world. It has recently opened a medical program to educate and train pioneering medical students who will soon manage their excellent hospital in the city. The Paulinian tradition can also be experienced in other campuses in Surigao city, Dumaguete city, Iloilo city, and Quezon city.

A pioneer in law and marine engineering

The University of Cagayan Valley or UCV, known before as the Cagayan Colleges of Tuguegarao (CCT) and Cagayan Teachers College (CTC), is a pioneering university for legal, criminal, and marine engineering programs in the region.

Although, it does not enjoy much prestige as a private academic institution compared with its counterpart private Catholic schools in the city, still the UCV remains special as it established itself as an alternative school of learning that offers affordable higher education.

It houses the only college of law in the province that belongs to the prestigious 50 top law schools in the country. By sheer hard work and luck, this university produces lawyers annually despite the legendary tough BAR examination.

Never underestimate its facilities. Since the college has morphed wonderfully into university, it has continued investing in state-of-the-art facilities including a mock ship, the largest gymnasium in town, an Olympic-sized swimming pool, and has two campuses within the city.   

It has produced competent lawyers, top criminologists, and sea captains circumnavigating around the world. From an academic institution envisioned to specialize in producing educators and teachers, nonetheless, this underdog university in the region found a niche in other specialized courses. I could heartily say this because my mom contributed a lot in founding the colleges of liberal arts, criminology, and marine engineering during its inception.

The province’s state university

The Cagayan State University or CSU is the largest state institution of higher learning in Cagayan Valley established in 1978 through Presidential Decree 1436, later amended by Republic Act 9282.  Satellite campuses are also strategically located in the municipalities of Aparri, Piat, Lasam, Sanchez Mira with two campuses in Tuguegarao city.

The main campus boasts Greco-Roman designed edifices. Its elegant columns are the main attraction among iskolar ng bayan in the city. CSU offers the largest number of curricular program offerings in the province. It is a public university in the region which pioneered to offer medicine and surgery, mass communication, crop and animal sciences, agricultural engineering, and veterinary medicine programs, to name a few. CSU has also a thriving college of law.

I commend some of its primordial programs, particularly on agricultural, aquatic, and medical courses. Cagayan Valley is primarily an agricultural region and the educational programs CSU has been offering is responsive to the needs of the people in major rural parts of the province or the entire region. 

Opportunities and challenges

The Marian university of USLT, together with equally successful universities in Tuguegarao city, including SPUP, UCV, and CSU, established since pre and post World War II have had tremendously elevated the quality of education in the region. These institutions of higher education have continuously shaped minds and molded core values of the different ethnic groups co-existing in Cagayan Valley.

Tuguegarao city as the regional hub of Region II should not remain complacent of the status quo, but rather aspire to become a medium-sized from a small-sized component city. The flourishing city is already equipped with fundamental socio-economic elements. What is needed now is how to capitalize on its prime potential on education.

The city of Tuguegarao, the province of Cagayan, and the entire region of Cagayan valley should remain steadfast to achieve above average human development index. There’s no way but to move forward and show to other cities, provinces, and regions in the Philippines that with good universities based in Tuguegarao, it will definitely train the body and minds of young people that will benefit all the stakeholders in the region.

I see a promising Tuguegarao city. Given an ample time and progressive leaders armed with right education bestowed by its good universities, there’s no reason to fail but to aspire for bigger dreams.

Many of the people in the region were schooled in the good universities in Tuguegarao city are making marks and niches in the national scene and the global arena. To all proud alumni of the universities in the city, let’s make Tuguegarao the prime hub of learners or a university city of Region II.

I wish that a future president or vice president of the Philippines or perhaps secretaries of the various departments in the bureaucracy, top experts and scientists teaching in top universities in the Philippines will trace their intellectual traditions among the best universities based in Tuguegarao city.

Despite countless opportunities courtesy of good education in Tuguegarao city, one of the challenges ahead is how to make it on the Top 10 list of the best universities in the Philippines or even make it to the Top 300 best universities in Asia. The world is deterritorializing and has now become a global village. Universities in Tuguegarao city must compete globally and aspire for higher standard of higher learning.