What would become UE was initially a rented room on Dasmariñas Street in Manila where, in September 1946, the late Dr. Francisco T. Dalupan, Sr. and a group of educators organized
Certified Public Accountant (CPA) review classes for 110 students—four of who became topnotchers in the 1947 CPA Board exams. Encouraged by this initial success, Dr. Dalupan and his associates opened the Philippine College of Commerce and Business Administration (PCCBA) to some 350 business students in the summer of 1947 on R. Papa Street in Manila.

On July 3, 1951, the PCCBA was granted university status and became the University of the East, with Dr. Dalupan as Chairman of the Board and President.

UE’s Caloocan Campus was established in 1954 as a Vocational and Technical Training Center. It would eventually become an autonomous unit headed by a Chancellor.

The UE College of Medicine was first established in 1955. On May 17,1957, the College was converted into a Foundation and named the UE Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Medical Center
(UERMMMC).

UE’s three Campuses are composed of several colleges and schools.

At UE Manila, at the heart of the University Belt, are the Graduate School,the Colleges of Arts and Sciences, Business Administration, Computer Studies and Systems, Dentistry, Education, Engineering, and Law. Under the College of Engineering is the Institute of Technical Education, while under the College of Education are the Elementary and Secondary Laboratory Schools.

UE Caloocan, which is located along Samson Road in Caloocan City, has the Colleges of Arts and Sciences, Business Administration, Engineering—along with the Institute of Technical Education— and Fine Arts.

UERMMMC, located along Aurora Boulevard in Quezon City, has the Colleges of Medicine, Nursing, and Physical Therapy and the Graduate School.

All three UE Campuses are run predominantly by the University’s own alumni, led by Mr. P. O. Domingo, a 1950 alumnus, magna cum laude, of the College of Business Administration-Manila
who is the Chairman and Chief Executive Offi cer of all three Campuses.

PRESENT TIMES
UE Manila has been granted the deregulated status by the Commission on Higher Education, while many of its Colleges have each been accredited the Level II status by the Philippine
Association of Colleges and Universities Commission on Accreditation (PACUCOA). The UERMMMC Colleges, for their part, have been accredited at varying levels by the Philippine
Accrediting Agency of Schools, Colleges and Universities (PAASCU).

State-of-the-art, high-technology facilities and education abound on all UE Campuses—providing good value for tuition fees by way of modern IT and library facilities, progressive teaching methods, air-conditioned classrooms and a campus environment conducive to learning. Among the University’s more recent infrastructure milestones are the Tan Yan Kee Academic Building at the Caloocan Campus, which now houses the Campus’s Colleges of Arts and Sciences, Business Administration and Fine Arts, as well as a host of computer laboratories, the Benjamin G. Chua Jr. Library and a Gigabit Ethernet system.

Many know UE for having been the best business school around especially from its inception up to the early 1980s, when UE graduates would dominate the topnotchers list of the CPA board
exams. But the University has likewise yielded topnotchers in other licensure board exams—in Dentistry, Engineering, Education, Law, Medicine, Nursing and Physical Therapy—through the years up to the present.

UE’s record as a center of learning draws graduates of high schools throughout the country and from foreign lands. Its alumni, now more than 180,000 strong, have made indelible marks on diverse fi elds of endeavor. Vice President Manuel "Noli" L. De Castro, Jr., Senator Alfredo S. Lim and chess Grandmaster Nelson I. Mariano II are just a few of UE’s accomplished alumni.

The University’s athletes have made strides in the realm of sports, including championships in athletics, basketball, chess, fencing, football, gymnastics, softball and weightlifting in UAAP tournaments, at the Southeast Asian Games and other tournaments here and abroad. Besides UAAP, Champions League and other local championships, the famed UE Red Warriors—whose
alumni include former Senator Robert Jaworski and PBA star Allan Caidic— became the fi rst ever visiting team of any country to win the championship at the International Friendship Basketball
Tournament in Guam, at the tourney’s 12th season in 2003.

UE’s student artists and cultural groups have likewise made waves here and abroad through exhibitions of their artistry as well as triumphs in competitions, such as the UE Chorale’s
having earned the Public’s Choice Award and a 2nd Place overall finish at the 40th International Chorwettbewerb choir competition in Austria in July 2003.

THE FUTURE
The groundwork has been laid down for a 10-year plan to reinvent UE into a system of learning universities centered on Science, Technology, Education, Arts and Management (STEAM), fully redesigned and retooled for the Knowledge Society.

Within 10 years; UE Manila becomes a leading Center for Information Technology, Informatics, Management and Languages; UE Caloocan, a leading Center for Industrial Science, Technology, Management and Design; UERMMMC, a distinct, high-tech, high-touch Center for Advanced Health Science, Technology and Management.

The plan will also provide for the establishment of a new UE Campus for Advanced Science and Technology, to become a Philippine counterpart of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; a new UE Agricultural Campus, which will specialize in cutting-edge agricultural science, technology and management; a new UE Marine/Maritime Campus, to be put up in the Visayas (preferably in Iloilo), which will specialize in advanced marine/maritime science, technology and management; a new UE Center for Basic Education, to be distinguished by its innovative, learning-oriented College of Education and its K-10 Science and Technology School; and a new UE Center for E-Learning and Open Education— also known as the UE Virtual University or UE e-University—which will offer various online programs and courses to working adults and become the country’s leading virtual, e-learning university.

 With this vision, it is hoped that UE will become one of the Philippines’ top three universities by 2014.