The story
The foundation of the university is attributed to the Spanish friar Miguel de Benavides. He came to the Philippines with the first Dominican mission in 1587. He went on to become bishop of Nueva Segovia and was promoted to become the third archbishop of Manila in 1602. Upon his death on July 26, 1605, Benavides bequeathed his library and personal property worth ₱1,500 to be used as the seed fund for the establishment of an institution of higher learning. Two days before, he made a testament in the presence of Dominican priests Domingo de Nieva and Bernardo de Santa Catalina, who were the executors of his last will. In June 1606, Nueva Segovia bishop Diego de Soria wrote a letter to King Philip III of Spain informing him of the plans of founding a colegio. He also added that the colegio be given authorization to grant academic degrees similar to those of the Colegio de Santo Tomás in Avila, Spain.
In 1609, permission to open the college was requested from King Philip III of Spain, which only reached Manila two years later. The university was founded on April 28, 1611. The act of foundation was signed by frays Baltasar Fort, Bernardo Navarro, and Francisco Minayo. Bernardo de Santa Catalina carried out the wishes of Benavides and was able to secure a building near the Dominican church and convent in the walled city of Intramuros in Manila for the college. The authorities took the example of universities in Spain, such as the University of Salamanca, and in Spanish America, such as the Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico, to become a model for the university. UST was first called the College of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary (Colegio de Nuestra Señora del Santísimo Rosario), and in 1619, it was renamed Colegio de Santo Tomas in honor of the Dominican theologian, St. Thomas Aquinas. On November 20, 1645, Pope Innocent X issued the papal bull In Supereminenti, which elevated the Colegio de Santo Tomás to a university and placed it under papal authority.
Following the royal decree of King Philip V of Spain in 1733 and bull Dudum emanarunt of Pope Clement XII in 1734, the Faculty of Canon Law (Facultad de Cánones) and the Faculty of Civil Law (Facultad de Derecho) were established.
The Royal Decree of May 20, 1865, from Queen Isabella II of Spain gave power to UST for the supervision of all secondary schools. Being the only institution of higher learning at that time, UST acted as the Department of Education of the country. After five years, the Minister of Overseas Colonies Segismundo Moret issued a decree that converted Real y Pontificia Universidad de Santo Tomás into Real y Pontificia Universidad de Filipinas. In 1871, the Superior Gobierno de Filipinas issued a decree that established the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy (Facultad de Medicina y Farmacia). UST was allowed to grant a licentiate degree in medicine. From 1877 to 1901, 329 students were granted the licentiate degree. José Rizal studied medicine at the university from 1878 to 1882, where he was granted the rare privilege of studying simultaneously the preparatory course of medicine and the first year of medicine. The university began granting the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1902 during the new American system.
The university was registered on January 13, 1908, as a non-stock, non-profit educational institution under Act 1459 with the corporate name of Real y Pontificia Universidad de Santo Tomás de Manila. With the growing student population, the Dominicans were given a 21.5-hectare plot of land at the Sulucan Hills in Sampaloc, Manila and built its new campus. In 1924, it began accepting female enrollees. All courses and departments moved to the new campus, with the exception of medicine and civil law, both of which remained in Intramuros.
During World War II, the Imperial Japanese forces converted UST into an internment camp for enemy aliens, mostly Americans living in the Philippines. Their secret police division, known as Kenpeitai, turned the original Intramuros campus into a garrison and torture chamber, destroying it by fire in 1944. Over 3,700 internees were freed, 2,870 of whom were Americans, and over 600 were either killed or died from sickness or starvation in the internment camp for 37 months from January 1942 until February 11, 1945, when the camp was liberated by General Douglas MacArthur.
UST was given the title "Royal" by King Charles III of Spain in 1785, in recognition of the university's loyalty in defending Manila against the British troops. In 1974, then prince King Juan Carlos I of Spain visited UST and was conferred doctor of laws honoris causa and the title Royal Patron, as a revival of the tradition dating back to 1680 when King Charles II of Spain was named the first patron. Queen Sofía of Spain, who visited with her husband in 1974, came back in 2012.
In 1902, UST was officially declared a pontifical university by the Quae Mari Sinico, an apostolic constitution signed by Pope Leo XIII. As a pontifical university, UST has been visited by the pope four times since 1970, Pope Paul VI in 1970, Pope John Paul II in 1981 and 1995, and by Pope Francis in 2015. During the quadricentennial year in 2011, Pope Benedict XVI sent a special envoy and gave a video message. In 1947, Pope Pius XII bestowed the appellate name The Catholic University of the Philippines.
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UST's first Filipino rector was Leonardo Legaspi, who served UST from 1971 to 1977. At the onset of martial law in the Philippines in 1972, he issued guidelines from a Department Order about the Marcos martial law and sought the help of the faculty members for the maintenance of discipline imposed by the government. The Varsitarian continued to operate during martial law, even when several national newspapers were shut down. The UST administration cautioned The Varsitarian against publishing anti-government sentiments, but the publication still urged the students to resist the dictatorship. The student council from the Faculty of Arts and Letters became the first legitimate student government in the country since martial law was declared.
UST's recognition as the oldest extant university in the Philippines was disputed by the University of San Carlos. Since its establishment, the UST's academic life has been interrupted only twice; from 1898 to 1899, during the Philippine Revolution against Spain, and from 1942 to 1945, during the Japanese occupation of the country. On December 1, 2010, the House of Representatives passed Resolution No. 51, "Resolution Congratulating the University of Santo Tomas on the occasion of its Quadricentennial Anniversary in 2011," which read "founded on April 28, 1611, by Archbishop Miguel de Benavides" and "has the oldest extant university charter in the Philippines and Asia."
In the first term of 2026–2027, 45,731 students enrolled in the university. There were 38,463 students in the undergraduate and graduate programs, while 7,268 were enrolled in the basic education units (education high school, education senior high school, UST high school and UST senior high school).
Seal
The oldest seal used by the university is first seen in an examination book Libros de piques that is found in the UST Archives.
The current seal features a modern French shield quartered by the Dominican Cross. At its center lies the sun of St. Thomas Aquinas, surrounded by four distinct symbols on a field of light blue to honor the Marian color: the papal tiara, signifying the university’s status as a pontifical institution; the lion rampant from the coat of arms of Spain; the sea-lion from the seal of Manila; and the rose vignette symbolizing the patronage of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The surrounding inscription bears the full name of UST, Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas, Manila and its foundation year, 1611. The colors, as officially defined by the university's identity guidelines, define the gold and blue as Pantone 213 C and Pantone 298 C, respectively.
From Wikipedia’s article on University of Santo Tomas, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4