Mapua opens first Mindanao campus

Yuchengco-led Mapua Institute of Technology, the country’s largest engineering school, is set to enter Mindanao’s education space with the opening of a new campus in Davao City by July 2018.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Friday, the Yuchengco-led iPeople Inc. (IPO) announced that its subsidiary Malayan Colleges Inc.—which operates under the Mapua brand—had set up a new subsidiary to support and operate the group’s expansion in the education sector in the Mindanao Region.

The new subsidiary, Malayan Colleges Mindanao Inc. (MCMI) was recently incorporated with an authorized capitalization of P650 million and paid-up capital of P462.5 million.

MCMI has acquired a 2.3-hectare land in Davao City where the new school would be located.

“Construction of the school facilities will commence in the first quarter of 2016,” the IPO disclosure said. “The school will start its operations in July 2018 and shall offer collegiate/university and graduate courses.”

Incorporated in 1989, IPO serves as the Yuchengco group’s holding company for investments in the education and technology sector. For its part, Malayan Colleges has two other wholly-owned units: Malayan Colleges Laguna and the Malayan High School of Science.

Mapua is a nonsectarian institute for higher learning pioneering in technical education. With its first campus in Carriedo Street in Quiapo, Manila, it started out as a night school, with 80 students enrolled in civil engineering and architecture. Today, it claims to be the biggest engineering school in the Philippines with at least 15,000 students.

The school was established by Don Tomas Mapúa, the country’s first registered architect, in 1925.  The Yuchengco group acquired the school in 1999.