The Country’s First State University: Aims, Structure, and Legacy of the Literary University of the Philippines (1898-99)

Abstract

After proclaiming the independence of the Philippines from Spanish rule on 12 June 1898, the Filipino revolutionary leaders encountered a problem: other nations did not recognize their sovereignty. Aside from their old-time adversary, the Spaniards, they were also facing threats of invasion by Germany, Japan, and the United States. Blood was still being spilled heavily on the battlefields. Yet, despite those odds, they founded in October 1898 a national institution of higher learning, the Universidad Literaria de Filipinas (Literary University of the Philippines), the first-ever university that Filipinos founded. It began with full support from the government, with the best available resources and with leading intellectuals as its administrators, faculty, and students. This paper uses ethnographic studies written from the 16th to the 17th centuries, propaganda writings made in the 19th century, and revolutionary records produced in 1898-1899 to answer why the First Philippine Republic established the Universidad Literaria de Filipinas while still carrying out the revolution against Spain and a war against the United States was looming; how the University carried out its goals, functions, and programs; and the legacy that this institution has left to the nation.