MANILA, Philippines--The family of mall magnate Henry Sy has privately acquired 60 percent of National University (NU), one of the country's oldest universities, as it aims to uplift the state of education in the country.

SM Investments Corp. president Harley Sy said the stake was bought sometime during the second quarter this year from the Jhocson family, the founders of the school.

"(Good education) has always been a vision of Tatang (Henry Sy, his father). (NU) is a good name and a good school. Its new slogan would be NU breed, NU attitude," said Sy of the 108-year-old university.

He said the Sy family would start constructing an eight-storey building in September to house classrooms and other departments to expand the school's facilities. The new building, which could cost about P240 million, is targeted to be finished by next year.

NU has 1,300 students and offers the following undergraduate programs: commerce, computer science, dentistry, education, hotel and restaurant management, liberal arts, nursing, pharmacy, architecture, engineering and entrepreneurship.

SM Foundation, the family's corporate citizenship arm, also has the SM College Scholarship Program that was started in 1993. The program maintains 400 scholars at any given time from the National Capital Region, Pampanga, Marilao, Bagiuo, Batangas, Lucena, Cavite, Cebu, Ioilo, Davao and Cagayan de Oro.

To date, 630 scholars have graduated from the program and are employed with the SM Group of Companies, which operates about 30 malls nationwide, and other companies locally and abroad.

Aside from NU, the Sy family, through Sysmart Corp., owns 20.8 percent in listed firm Far Eastern University.