University of San Carlos: The Oldest School in Philippines and Asia
The University of San Carlos (USC) in Cebu City is the oldest school in the Philippines and in Asia. Originally founded in 1595, the College was granted its university charter in 1948.
It was founded as the Colegio de San Ildefonso by the Spanish Jesuits fathers Antonio Sedeno, Pedro Chirino and Antonio Pereira on August 1, 1595. This makes the school older than the University of Santo Tomas (1611) in Manila and Harvard University (1636]) in the United States. It was closed from 1769 at the expulsion of the Jesuits.
In 1783 it was reopened on the initiative of the Bishop Mateo Joaquin de Arevalo, taking then the name of Colegio-Seminario de San Carlos. In 1852, the management of the college was entrusted to the Dominican fathers, replaced in 1867 by the Vincentian Fathers then, in 1935, in Societas Verbi Divini (Society of the Divine Word).
June 22nd, 2007 at 3:10 am
It is true and accoding to hisstorians that University of San Carlos in Cebu City is the oldest school/university in the Philippines and in Asia. Sad to say the Dominicans does not know the history of the Philippines by claiming that UST as the oldest in Asia. USC was founded in 1595 while UST was founded 11 years later in 1611.
January 3rd, 2008 at 4:04 pm
let me just cleat this…
UST claims the title as oldest university in the Philippines and not University of San Carlos because:
1. “UST was formerly known as Colegio de Nuestra Señora del Santísimo Rosario and was established in 1611 as an ACADEMIC INSTITUTION while the University of San Carlos formerly known as Colegio de San Ildefonso was established in 1595 not as an academic institution but merely as a DORMITORY ONLY.”
2. It was closed in 1769 with the expulsion of the Jesuits. In 1783, the Colegio-Seminario de San Carlos opened under new owners.
3. UST was the first to have a UNIVERSITY STATUS in 1645 while USC had it just 1948.
January 14th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
usc is not a dormitory during its foundation in the first place, it is a colegio-seminario…
how do you trace the origin of yur school? of course from its roots…
usc then is the oldest school not only in the philippines but as wel as in asia..
April 17th, 2008 at 11:43 am
hey hey hey…nice blog…im thinking of doing a bit of history myself sooner when i could gather myself and really focus on blogging….this is really interesting
September 1st, 2008 at 5:09 pm
lol!
School is very different from university!
weeeeeewwwwwwwwww