LAMUT, Ifugao — President Arroyo and ranking officials of the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) are scheduled to arrive in this world heritage province Wednesday to inaugurate the Ifugao State University (IFSU), the second State University in the Cordillera.

The IFSU was created by virtue of Republic Act (RA) 9720 which converted the Ifugao State College of Agriculture and Forestry (ISCAF) and its other extension campuses into a university to further enhance the delivery of quality tertiary education to the far flung communities in the country.

Mrs. Arroyo signed RA 9720 into law last October 14, 2009 at the Malacañang Palace but opted to lead the inauguration rites in order to visit the province and inspect the world famous Ifugao rice terraces, which is considered as the 8th Wonder of the World.

The new law capped seix years of relentless effort and struggle to establish a university in the Province of Ifugao with expanded scope of services.

The quest to university statehood started in 2003 with the crafting of ISCAF’s 8-year development plan that embodies its vision, mission and 8 major development goals distributed among its four-fold thrust of instruction, research, extension and production services.

On June 21, 2007, the united effort of the ISCAF family to transform ISCAF into university started to pay off with the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd), the ones recognizing the stage of development of the state universities and colleges (SUC’s), elevating ISCAF to SUC Level III from SUC Level I.

After gracing the program prepared to formalize the establishment of the IFSU, the President is expected to have a meeting with provincial and municipal officials to ascertain their priorities, especially in the preservation and protection of the famous rice terraces to continue attracting the influx of more foreign and domestic tourists in the future.

Benguet State University (BSU) in La Trinidad, Benguet was the first State University to be established in the Cordillera by virtue of an initiative by lawmakers which was signed by then President Corazon C. Aquino in January 1987.