The Mapúa Institute of Technology, more widely known as Mapua, is an 80-year old technology-centered institution of higher education located in the heart of Manila. With approximately 15,000 students enrolled under its different programs, it is by far the biggest engineering school in the Philippines accounting for about 8% of the field’s graduates in the country every year. The Institute also runs a pre-engineering high school with roughly 1,800 students in the neighboring area of Pandacan. The name of the academe takes its origin from its founder, Don Tomas Mapúa, a graduate of Cornell University and indisputably one of the pillars of Philippine architecture. The Institute was fully owned by the Mapúa family from its conception until 1999 when it was acquired 100% by the Yuchengco Group of Companies (YGC) through a company now known as iPeople, Inc. At present, Ambassador Alfonso T. Yuchengco chairs the Mapúa Board of Trustees while Alfonso S. Yuchengco, III sits as Vice-Chairman.
The Institute prides itself with the notable quality of its architecture and engineering programs, which has been demonstrated time and again in the long history of topnotch performance by its graduates in the government-administered professional licensure examinations. Under the new YGC management, the quality of instruction is being enhanced even as new dimensions are being added to the Institute's mission. Aside from excellence in teaching, the Institute now aims to develop its research, as well as consultancy and community extension capabilities. To this end, it considers as its mission not only to transmit but also to generate and apply knowledge. The Institute thus commits itself to be at the frontlines of problem solving for the benefit of the Filipinos and humankind without forgetting that the core of its strength lies and shall continue to lie in its engineering and architecture educational programs that are well-balanced by the two-year general education curriculum in the arts, humanities and social sciences.
In recognition of the growing needs for IT professionals locally and worldwide, the Institute is establishing more programs in IT through regular degree and two-year associate degree programs, as well as short-term programs for specific and special competencies. The School of IT and the Center for Continuing Education and Special Competencies handle the latter curriculum.
To put its consultancy services on solid organizational footing, the Institute likewise very recently established a wholly-owned subsidiary, the Mapúa TechServ, Inc.
