Mapúa Institute of Technology is located at Muralla St. Intramuros, Manila. An extension campus is also located along Senator Gil Puyat Avenue, Makati City.

Mapúa Institute of Technology was not spared from the ravages of war in the 1940s, but it resumed operations after the liberation of Manila rising again in a new site bounded by Doroteo Jose and Misericordia St. (now Don Tomas Mapúa Street).

In the late 50’s, the Institute branched out to Intramuros housing the School of Architecture and the upper engineering degree programs. The School of Basic Studies (General Engineering) and the high school department remained at the Doroteo Jose compound.

The tradition of academic excellence established by Don Tomas was carried on even after his demise on December 22, 1965. His only son, Don Oscar B. Mapúa, took over the presidency armed with the commitment to the furtherance of the vision of the founder of the Institute.

With the expansion of its facilities, the Intramuros complex was ready to take the entire collegiate department in 1973. Concurrent with the physical expansion program was the introduction of more degree programs.

The success of the efforts of the Institute to establish a culture of excellence in education is firmly evidenced by the high performance of its graduates in the licensure examinations, consistently placing in the top ten, and maintaining high passing percentage rates. This accounts for the high demand for Mapúa graduates by private and government institutions, where a big number of important positions are occupied by alumni of the Institute.

To ensure quality education, the Institute employs outstanding faculty members who are highly qualified in terms of academic degrees and teaching experience. The qualifications of these teachers are enhanced through scholarship grants for higher learning as well as attendance in conventions and seminars to keep them abreast with the latest teaching approaches. Excellence in teaching is always encouraged, acknowledged and rewarded.

When President Oscar B. Mapúa passed away on March 17, 1998, his son Architect Oscar B. Mapúa, Jr. took over his duties until December 1999 when the ownership of the Institute was passed on to a business conglomerate headed by Ambassador Alfonso T. Yuchengco.

Ambassador Yuchengco, a long time benefactor of economically disadvantaged students, believes that Mapúa Institute of Technology should help address the demands of the new millennium for quality professionals in order to achieve economic progress that would allow the country to move forward. It is his vision to develop Mapúa into an international center of engineering, architecture, and IT education in order to take a lead role in producing local graduates who shall offer world-class professional services in the knowledge-based global economy of today.

PRESENT TIMES

Mapúa Institute of Technology continues to transform itself so its graduates can take full advantage of global, knowledge-related opportunities. Among other things, the forces behind the institution have widened the range of the school’s academic program offerings while internationalizing its curricula.

Drawing from the experience in running quality Engineering programs, Mapúa have started to offer new quality programs in the fields of Information Technology, Biotechnology, the Health Sciences, the Social Sciences, and Management because they believe that these are the programs needed by society today and in the years to come. These are also the programs upon which the graduates can build successful careers and by means of which they can help the country and humanity.

The broadening of program offerings makes it possible for Mapúa to be elevated to University Status in a few years. When that happens, Mapúa graduates will find it easier to gain employment in the United States and Canada where employers prefer graduates of universities rather than graduates of institutes. Under a university set-up, Mapua’s graduates shall be trained in teamwork and steeped in multidisciplinary approaches to problem-solving. These skills are among the expected learning outcomes in today’s education systems across the globe. As a university, the school shall be called "Malayan University," under which the name Mapúa Institute of Technology shall be retained as the name of the flagship academic unit, the College of Engineering, Architecture, and I.T.

The school administrators shall see to it that the name "Mapúa" remains, or becomes even more, famous even as the name "Malayan" eventually gets associated with quality education in many diverse fields of knowledge.

Five years ago, Mapúa enunciated its vision to become an "international center of excellence." At one level, the school has had to adopt an international outlook and has had to develop and nurture global linkages. Mapúa has forged student exchange agreements with a number of foreign schools. Under these agreements three Mapúa students spent a semester in California and one spent half a year in New Delhi. All got very good grades in the courses they took. Mapúa also jointly operate a state-of-the-art controls laboratory with a worldwide leader in control systems. They searched the whole of Asia and selected Mapúa to be their partner. The school also has agreements with various global I.T. companies to offer universally-recognized certificate courses. Even its singing group went on a tour of North America in 2003.

At another level, the school has had to take steps to come up to established international education standards prior to mounting an effort to exceed such standards on the way to demonstrable global excellence. Thus, Mapúa has been determinedly pursuing certification for its engineering and IT programs by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), the only organization authorized to accredit engineering and I.T. programs in the U.S. Once granted, the certification will declare Mapúa’s academic programs to be "substantially equivalent" to accredited U.S. programs. Coming from an ABET-certified school, Mapúa graduates should then have an easier time gaining employment, entering into professional practice and getting admitted to graduate schools in the U.S. and elsewhere. For all its other programs, the school shall seek international accreditation, certification, or benchmarking as well.