UP president Angelo Jimenez unveils university's new motto: 'Honor. Excellence. Service'
The University of the Philippines (UP) has released a new motto, adding the word "service" with honor and excellence.
In a Facebook post, UP president Angelo Jimenez announced the university's new motto, saying that service is "the reason for being" of every Isko and Iska.
"Our new motto. Honor and Excellence in the Service of the Nation! UP serves. It's our reason for being," Jimenez captioned the post.
In case you didn't know, the university's old motto was "Honor and Excellence," which signifies its mission "to foster efficacy, effectivity, and efficiency through transdisciplinary engagements in teaching, research, and public service."
However, in a speech by Jimenez in 2023, he said that "honor and excellence are not enough" to envision UP in "the next six years to be at the forefront of transformative scientific, cultural, and artistic pedagogy, research, and public service in local and global communities."
"Aanhin ang husay at dangal kung walang malasakit at kung walang pakikipag-kapwa tao?" he said, highlighting that a transformative UP means "no individual or small group effort would probe enough to offer a sound alternative to the complexities" that the country is.
A national university
In 2008, through Republic Act No. 9500, UP was established as the country's national university. With this, UP was redefined as the UP System composed of constituent universities, including UP Baguio and UP Cebu, which attained the status of constituent universities in 2002 and 2010, respectively.
Moreover, UP, together with Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU) and De La Salle University (DLSU), placed in four out of five major subject areas in the 2024 Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings by Subject.
The university was part of the 501 to 550 bracket in life sciences and medicine, as well as engineering and technology—the only local university that got a ranking in the disciplines.
Meanwhile, UP Diliman, the system's flagship university, emerged as the top PH university in the latest EduRank ranking released last March this year.
According to the latest assessment published on Thursday, Feb. 29, UP Diliman is the top higher education institution in the country, 374th out of 5,830 higher education institutions in Asia and 1,367th out of 14,131 higher education institutions worldwide.
UP also cemented its name at the top of the Philippine schools that made it to the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings 2024, hopping on the 404th spot from 412th in 2023.
PhilSTAR L!fe has also reached out to the University of the Philippines for a statement on the new motto.