University of Sto. Tomas

• The University of Santo Tomas (UST) is the oldest existing university in Asia. In terms of student population, it is the largest Catholic university in the world in a single campus. The institution was established through the initiative of Bishop Miguel de Benavides, O.P., third Archbishop of Manila
• On July 24, 1605, he bequeathed the amount of one thousand five hundred pesos and his personal library for the establishment of a “seminary-college” to prepare young men for the priesthood. Those funds, and his personal library, became the nucleus for the start of UST and its library
• The founding of the University of Santo Tomas followed on April 28, 1611. With the original campus located in Intramuros, the Walled City of Manila, UST was first called Colegio de Nuestra Señora del Santisimo Rosario, and later renamed Colegio de Santo Tomas, in memory of the foremost Dominican Theologian, St. Thomas Aquinas
• On July 29, 1619 the Colegio was authorized to confer academic degrees in theology and philosophy
•  In 1680, it was subsequently placed under the royal patronage of the Spanish monarchy
• In 1734 Pope Clement XII authorized the University to confer degrees in all existing faculties as well as in all others that might be introduced in the future. The Pope also approved the curriculum in the entire field of jurisprudence
• On May 20, 1865, a royal order from Queen Isabella II gave the University the power to direct and supervise all the schools in the Philippines and the Rector of the University became the ex-officio head of the secondary and higher education in the Philippines. All diplomas issued by other schools were approved by the Rector of the University and examinations leading to the issuance of such diplomas were supervised by the Dominican professors of UST
• On September 17, 1902, Pope Leo XIII made the University of Santo Tomas a Pontifical University, and by 1947, Pope Pius XII bestowed upon it the title of The Catholic University of the Philippines. The University of Santo Tomas is the second university in the world after the Gregorian University in Rome to be granted the formal title of Pontifical University. The Gregorian University was allowed to assume this title in 1873