UST's General Santos Campus Will Be Four Times Larger Than Its Manila Campus
The Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas (UST) is building a 76.78-hectare campus in General Santos City—nearly four times the size of its historic 21-hectare campus in Manila, the oldest univeristy in Asia.
“The 76.78-hectare campus in Barangay Ligaya, General Santos City (GenSan) is expected to house 15,000 students. It will have 77 classrooms, 25 laboratories, a chapel with a 100-person capacity, a library, a clinic, org rooms, an auditorium, and function halls,” wrote the Varsitarian.
Among the colleges that will be housed in the new campus at UST GenSan are the School of Business and Accountancy, School of Health Sciences, School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, and a School of Engineering and Technology.
Based on the aerial plan, the GenSan campus looks like a mirror of the Manila campus, with a six-storey main building facing a sprawling plaza.
The campus will also have a football field, an oval, and what looks like an amphitheater, based on the aerial plan.
UST held a groundbreaking ceremony at the site back in 2018. The campus was expected to open in 2021 but was pushed further to 2023, according to The Flame, the official news organ of UST’s Faculty of Arts and Letters.
“When UST-GenSan opens, we will train and employ people from GenSan and the surrounding cities to work with us as faculty members and staff. We will also form meaningful [partnerships] with local industries which will lead to generation of job opportunities,” University Rector Fr. Richard Ang, O.P. said during the topping off ceremony held on December 4.
UST is Asia's oldest extant school and university, contrary to a myth propagated by some that say Cebu's University of San Carlos is the oldest.
