University Of The Philippines; Baguio City Campus

Established through the initiative of the UP alumni in Baguio and Benguet, the University of the Philippines in Baguio was inaugurated as a degree-granting unit of the University on 22 April 1961. A land grant worked out by alumni, the City Council,and by then UP President Vicente Cinco situated the College on its present location, a pine clad hill offering a panoramic view of Baguio.

The College went on to make its presence felt as it served as the site of National Arts Festivals in the coming years. Moves were made to strengthen its research capabilities, culminating in the institution of the Cordillera Studies Center in 1983.

Directions toward autonomy began with strategic planning in 1996. The following years saw the College working assiduously in the reformulation and strengthening of its academic programs, primarily. Administration of the College likewise oversaw the development in infrastructure and improvement of services and facilities. Such growth led to the elevation of UP College Baguio to full autonomous status, granted by the Board of Regents in December 2002. 

UP Baguio is now the seventh constituent university of the UP System.

Vision and Mission

UP Baguio remains at the forefront of the academic community in Northern Luzon, guided by the principles of scholastic excellence, academic freedom and nationalism. As articulated in its vision paper of 2002, UP Baguio continues to nurture and develop innovative programs in the arts and sciences. It will also continue to develop the niche it has created over the past decades in the Cordillera studies. UP Baguio has indeed created an impact in the region by informing its curricular, research and extension service programs with a regional perspective without losing track of national and global contexts.

Appointed first Chancellor of UP Baguio and continuing on to two more terms, Dr. Priscilla Supnet Macansantos has overseen the following agenda in UP Baguio’s unstinting pursuit of academic excellence and service to the people: full support for UPB’s growth as a research university; continuing efforts at academic program improvement, including internal academic assessments in all three Colleges; continuing faculty development, upgrading of faculty profiles and fine-tuning of recruitment policies; facilities upgrading and improvement (the latest building that has come up is the Alumni-Student Center, slated for completion before the year ends); staff welfare and sharpening of administrative efficiency; increase in the number of institutional linkages and networking with local partners and grant-giving institutions; and fuller engagement with alumni and the community.