A Historical Link Between University of the East(UE) and FEU

Dr. Francisco Dalupan (PCCB founder – now UE) was a very close friend of Dr. Nicanor Reyes, Sr. (Institute of Accountancy – now FEU) way back when they were teaching at the Department of Economics at the University of the Philippines. Dr. Dalupan helped Dr. Reyes in establishing FEU. When Dr. Reyes died, Dr. Dalupan dreamed of building his own school and was inspired of FEU’s success in the pre-war and post-war years. That is why when PCCB was granted university status in 1951 the board of trustees of PCCB decided to pattern its name to FEU’s trend of embracing the term “East” to its university name as the present day “University of the East.” In reality it did became a success in UE’s part as FEU’s no.1 competitor in the U-belt. During the 1960s they had a joint enrolment of about 100,000 students, which from then on were cut down as they built satellite campuses outside of Manila.

There were times during CPA and Bar exams in the 50s and 60s both UE and FEU would dominate the top 10. They share professors and students. When I was in FEU-FERN college in Diliman, my professor in humanities Dr. Urate (one of the best) who use to be a part time professor in FERN and at the same time a regular professor in UE manila. When I took graduate studies at the FEU manila, among my best and brightest classmates came from UE.

So I think, although FEU and UE are rival schools, they have this very distinct connection. People know that they both have distinguished schools of discipline and specializations. Both of them possess Centers of Development and Centers of Excellence in specific areas. And it’s a great thing to know that FEU and UE formed the Inter-
University Cooperation for Community-based Urban Renewal (IUCCURE) in 2003.

And if FEU and UE didn’t exist, I think college education would have been quite boring at least in my part. MABUHAY ang buong SILANGANAN!

By the way, East Asia is a wholly-owned subsidiary of FEU. The FEU College of Engineering and the East Asia College of Computer Studies now constitute the FEU-East Asia College.