The University of Santo Tomas (UST) is set to complete its 76.78-hectare General Santos campus, centered on agriculture and technology in 2024. It was initially projected to finish in 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the project, which broke ground in 2018.
Grand in size
Located in Barangay Ligaya in General Santos City, the new campus is set to be four times bigger than their Manila counterpart, which is also the oldest existing academic institution in Asia.
According to Professor Maribel Nonato, the assistant to the Rector for UST GenSan, the new campus aims to focus on innovation in science, agriculture, technology, business, and social sciences.
“Integrated innovation involves diversity where people of different disciplines with common aspirations come together to cultivate ideas that will generate innovative products, services, and processes, and this new product will improve the quality of lives of the community,” Nonato said during the Discurso de Apertura, the opening lecture of the 2023 academic year.
The GenSan campus is expected to initially accommodate about 15,000 students through 77 classrooms, 25 laboratories, and a chapel that can house 100 people. It also has a football field and an athletics oval, as well as a towering, six-storey main building mirroring the Manila campus.
UST listed technology, natural and health sciences, business, social sciences, and humanities as the first batch of programs the GenSan campus will offer.
Research-centric
The school also has its sights set on developing a research-centric franchise amidst educational challenges brought by the post-pandemic world.
“I’d like to envision the UST General Santos City branch to be an educational village where all the players work harmoniously with the community, industry, Church, and local government,” Nonato said.
The new GenSan campus will be the first UST branch outside of Luzon. The university also features Santa Rosa, Laguna, Legazpi City, and Albay campuses.
