University of Mindanao

In the midst of rebuilding the ruins of Davao City brought about by World War II, Atty. Guillermo E. Torres constructed the institution. Mindanao Colleges was incorporated on July 27, 1946. During the first year of operation, classes were held in four rented rooms of the Borgaily Building along San Pedro Street in Davao City. 13 teachers were hired and there were 381 enrollees. Dr. Efigenia C. Occeña was the Acting Coordinator. The permitted courses were originally the six year complete Elementary Course, two-year Secondary Course (1st and 2nd years), two year Elementary Teacher Certificate, two-year Associate in Commercial Science, and two-year Associate in Arts. On April 23, 1948, the institution held its first commencement exercise with 30 graduation and 50 high school students.

To accommodate the increasing number of students, the board of trustees decided to buy Club Royale along Legaspi Street and renovated it to suit classroom requirements. New parcels of land were purchased along Bolton and Bonifacio Street which is the present location of the main campus and Embassy Area, respectively. The university's influence erected more with the establishment of the Mindanao Collegian, the first free campus newspaper in Mindanao. It became the training ground of the Davao newspaper staff.

Foreign linkages were sparked when Atty. Torres left for the United States for a sponsored study tour in May 1955. Ties were formed with the University on the Air (1971); Sister University agreements with the John Dewey International University Consortium of America, New York City and the Fongchia College of Engineering and Business of Taipei, Taiwan.

The Open Education Program in the early 1970s enabled the institution to help the poor but deserving college undergraduates employed in the business and factory sites and self-employed to earn a college education. From being Mindanao Colleges in Bolton, it blossomed into the University of Mindanao on December 21, 1966, and has spawned ten more branches to the outlying province in 1948 in Digos, Bangoy, Peñaplata, Tagum (1950), Guianga (1952), Ilang-Tibungco (1951), Panabo (1951), Bansalan (1962), Cotabato City (1959), Toril, and Matina.

In 2023, UM received the Philippine Quality Award (PQA) for Performance Excellence from the Department of Trade and Industry, the highest possible award for organizations that demonstrate "management excellence by the purposefulness with which it continues to improve and build upon outstanding results and excellent systems", and can "serve as a national and global model". With this, UM became the award's third recipient (and first public organization) in the PQA's two-decade history, after Unilab in 2008 and Toyota Motor Philippines in 2021.