Long before the advent of the Americans, the Philippines has a lengthy tradition and great aspiration for higher education that had paved the way to prepare the Filipinos to further their training and study abroad and to pursue their advanced education in the western world with Spanish language as the primary medium of communication.
True enough, to quench this thirst for higher learning, the Malolos Congress of 1898 enacted a law for the establishment of the so-called university of state, "Universidad Literaria de Filipinas." However, such could be traced further back to the real origin to the Moret educational decrees of 1870, under the Spanish colonial regime, upon which the University of Santo Tomas could be converted into state university. Nevertheless, this educational reform was never realized because of the selfish schemes of the Spanish friars, until the outbreak of the revolution in 1898.
With the turn of the century, new spectrum of changes could be envisioned with the realization of this great aspiration for higher education. Spain was defeated during the Spanish American War and was compelled to relinquish her territories, such as Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Philippines to America, by virtue of the Treaty of Paris in 1898. In addition, the defeat of Admiral Montojo by Commodore Dewey at the Battle of Manila Bay in 1898, opened the door of the Philippines to the American occupation.
On April 7, 1900 , President William McKinley, of the United States of America, ordered the Philippine Commission "to promote and improve the educational system, inaugurated by the US military authorities, with the gradual implementation of the English as the medium of instruction.. President McKinley regarded that the importance of primary educational system shall be established and be free for all and shall tend to fit the people for duties of citizenship." President McKinley appointed William Howard Taft to continue the educational system started by the USmilitary This ushered in the coming of the American educators, aboard the U.S.S. THOMAS, the best transport service of the US government. At its inception, the USS THOMAS docked in Manila on August 21,1901, and discharged its cargo of 640 young American college graduates known as the "Thomasites."
The THOMASITES were a group of pioneer American teachers sent by the American government to the Philippines to establish a public school system to teach basic education and to train Filipino teachers, They were the response to the call to leave their homes in the United States of America and travel thousand miles to the Philippine shores to establish a nationwide system of public education. Consequently, the Thomasites were divided into two major groups upon arrival. One group was distributed all over the country, while the other group remained in Manila to work primarily at the Philippine Normal School where an intensive teacher-training program as well as taught classes in Manila's primary schools.
The beginning of a tertiary education under the American ruled sprang up from the decision of school authorities in 1904 to authorize the Philippine Normal School to offer extra secondary instruction to students who did not intend to pursue a teaching career. Likewise, there were existing needs of subjects other than those intended for students who would go into teaching . So, in 1904, the Philippine Normal School was established to meet the demands for higher levels of learning beyond the primary, intermediate, and high schools to undergraduate and professional fields. Indeed, on the foundation laid by the Thomasites has been the growing structure of free, public education for every citizen of the Republic of the Philippines, on which dedication and movement was the birth of the only state university, the UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES.
The Act of 1459 of the Philippine Commission, on March 1, 1906, provided for the formation and organization of schools and colleges, such as the establishment of Philippine Normal School, which virtually authorized the granting of bachelor's degrees or diplomas. Then, early in 1908, Morgan Shuster, Secretary of Public Instruction, presented the "Philippine university bill" in the Philippine Commission on February 8, 1908, which was a significant measure taken in the legislature and certainly one of the steps in the establishment of the highest institution of learning... The passage of the act in the assembly was the only way to give the Filipinos the education they needed which would put their learning at par with other countries. Thereby, the date of the signing of the University Act by the governor-general on June 18, 1908 was the foundation day of the University of the Philippines, which was for the purpose of establishing the university for the Philippines, giving it corporate existence and powers, tremendous responsibility of the establishment and operation of a highest institution of learning. The University of the Philippines has been the most logical outgrown and culmination of efforts made to establish a complete system of education for the Philippines.
The highest magistrate of the land was authorized to establish in the City of Manila a university to be known as "UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES. The university is aimed to give advanced instruction in literature, philosophy, the sciences and arts and to give professional and technical training to every qualified students irrespective of age, sex, nationality, religious belief or political affiliation.
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UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES: History and the THOMASITES 