The University of Santo Tomas (UST) is the oldest existing university in Asia. In terms of student population, it is the largest Catholic university in the world in a single campus.
The Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas, The Catholic University of the Philippines (UST, Filipino: Unibersidad ng Santo Tomas, Spanish: Universidad de Santo Tomás, Latin: Universitas Sancti Thomae; colloquially, "Ustê") is a private, Roman Catholic, teaching and research university run by the Order of Preachers in Manila. Founded on 28 April 1611 by archbishop of Manila Miguel de Benavides, it has the oldest extant university charter in the Philippines and in Asia[2][3] and is one of the world's largest Catholic universities in terms of enrollment found on one campus.[4][5] UST is also the largest university in the city of Manila. As the only Pontifical University in Asia,[6] UST is the only university to have been visited by two popes three times: once by Pope Paul VI on Nov. 28, 1970, and twice by Pope John Paul II on Feb. 18, 1981 and January 13, 1995.[7]
The University is composed of several autonomous faculties, colleges, schools and institutes, each conferring undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate degrees, and the basic education units. Several degrees have been accredited by the Commission on Higher Education as Centers of Excellence and Centers of Development. In August 2012, it was awarded Institutional Accreditation by the Federation of