Campus Overview
The University of the Philippines – Iloilo City Campus, is the oldest of the three campuses that are currently under UP Visayas. Its origin started as the country recovered from the devastations brought by World War II. Ignited by the desire to bring UP education closer to home, the Municipal Board of Iloilo issued an authorization during the 18th of December 1945 to open a branch of UP which would be built on the former site of the Iloilo City Hall. Finally on July 1947, the University of the Philippines Iloilo College (UPIC) started its operation with a Lower Division for 3rd and 4th year high school and Upper Division for 1st and 2nd college level. In 1954, after seven years of operation, UPIC earned full-fledged college status and was renamed as UP College Iloilo (UPCI). It offered complete high school curriculum as well as undergraduate and graduate degree programs. After the establishment of the UP Visayas – Miagao Campus, some of the units within UPV Iloilo were transferred. Today, there are two degree-granting units that remained in the Iloilo City campus; the College of Management and the Division of Professional Education under the College of Arts and Sciences, which maintains the UP High School in Iloilo (UPHSI). The UPHSI serves not just as a place of secondary learning for underprivileged students but also as an experimental laboratory for the development of innovative teaching strategies (UP Visayas, 2015).
Other units that remained in the Iloilo City Campus are:
o the Center for West Visayan Studies (CWVS)
o the Office of Continuing Education and Pahinungod (OCEP)
o the Sentro ng Wikang Filipino (SWF)
o the Graduate Program Office (GPO)
o the Language Program
o the UP Open University Learning Center Iloilo
Some of the notable alumni include the late Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago (B.A. Political Science 1965, magna cum laude) and former Solicitor General of the Philippines, Francis Jardeleza (B.A. Political Science 1970).