Mapúa Road to 100 | 99 Years of Building the Future with World-class Education

While digital globalization and technology may have transformed the way the world does business, they have also led to more cutthroat competition. It’s not just companies and professionals who feel the pressure; even schools are hard-pressed to produce future-ready workers who can competently take on jobs that don’t exist yet but will be essential later. Fortunately, higher education institutions (HEIs) like Mapúa University have had the foresight to gird up their students for disruptive yet inevitable scenarios like the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) years before it has come to pass.

Since founded by renowned architect Don Tomas Mapúa in 1925, the country’s leading engineering and technological school has been at the forefront of education. From introducing Architecture and Civil Engineering courses in 1925 to becoming the first private institution that taught Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering in the 1940s, to consistently leading in the board examinations and surpassing the national passing percentage for Civil, Electrical, Electronics, Mechanical, and Mining Engineering courses since the 1970s, the university effortlessly gained a reputation for high-quality education and capable graduates.

Throughout the years, the university upgraded and updated its course offerings, curriculum, faculty, facilities and resources, digital capabilities, and research focus to ensure that the knowledge it imparted was relevant, forward-looking, and at par with global standards. Its commitment to delivering world-class education soon led to its inclusion among the world’s best universities in the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2023. It also performed outstandingly for the fifth consecutive year in the THE University Impact Rankings, landing within the 801-1000 bracket, for its commitment to addressing the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In 2022, the higher education institution (HEI) was named one of the top 100 Southeast Asian universities by the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) Asia University Rankings for the fifth consecutive year. It was also recognized for its Digital Education Leadership by the United States-based education and technology company Cengage.

These milestones prove Mapúa’s credibility and effectiveness as an educational institution. It also reflects its unwavering commitment to produce job-ready, competent, global workers who can weather industry developments and meet the exacting requirements of companies.

“These recognitions and achievements serve as a testament to the quality of education provided by the university, which can be a valuable advantage for students as they enter the workforce. Overall, recognition and achievements are crucial for Mapúa students and alumni as they provide a tangible representation of the quality of education provided by the university and can help them stand out in a competitive job market,” said Mapúa president and chief executive officer Dr. Dodjie Maestrecampo.

One significant contributing factor to these achievements was the creation of Mapúa’s Yuchengco Innovation Center. The hub enabled the institution to delve extensively into research and collaborate with international universities. It provided young innovators, researchers, and funders an avenue to meet and collaborate and empowered them to create new processes, devices, instruments, services, tools, and new knowledge that could help address pressing issues.

The institution’s early implementation of digital education also made the school virtually future-proof, enabling a seamless transition to online learning modalities during the pandemic. This move positioned Mapúa as the country’s standard in digital education and empowered students to thrive despite the change in learning modalities.

“It is our goal to cement Mapúa University as a global leader in education, fostering sustainable socio-economic growth of society through innovation, digital transformation, and lifelong education,” said Dr. Maestrecampo.

As Mapúa moves toward its centennial anniversary, the university, from its students, administration, faculty, and staff, is even more determined to build new and more impactful inroads in global education within the next ten years. Dr. Maestrecampo explained that as the institution remains steadfast towards academic excellence, it will strengthen technology integration, international linkages, and research collaborations using a five-pronged approach.

He stated that they will equip students for the Industry 4.0 world through superior, motivational teaching and learning experiences that will hone their technical and soft skills. The engineering and technological university will intensify its local and international standing through exceptional licensure and certification exam results and relevant rankings.

The campus facilities will also be upgraded to multi-purpose spaces to foster creativity and multi-modal learning. These will be particularly useful to Mapúa’s creative minds since the university Is expected to embark on more research and project collaborations. Even more exciting is how the university’s administration aims to transform Mapúa into a leading innovation hub that utilizes cutting-edge teaching and learning methods, innovative research, and future-ready programs.

These long-term goals will set the pace for the engineering school in the coming years and undoubtedly elevate the country’s quality of education. With Mapúa’s track record of 99 years of academic excellence, it won’t be surprising if the university ticks off all the boxes ahead of time.