The Early Years of UERM
THE BEGINNING

     The year was 1955.

     The Philippines was still emerging from the ruins of the Second World War. The state of Philippine health was bad. Morbidity and mortality rates were high. Many places in the country were without adequate health services. People were dying without medical attendance.

     There was a crying need for more doctors. There were only five medical schools graduating a little over a thousand physicians annually. There were less than 10,000 physicians in the whole country with twenty million people – a ratio of one for every 2,000 individuals.

     The Filipino youth was ready to meet the challenge and were demanding admission to medical school. But the system could admit no more than 1,200 students.

      The opening of the UE College of Medicine was President Francisco Dalupan’s answer to the needs of the youth and the country. It was part of his grand vision for the university.

     The University of the East began as a college of commerce known as the Philippine College of Commerce and Business Administration in 1946 . Four new colleges were added in 1948: the Colleges of Liberal Arts, Education, Dentistry, and the Graduate School. With the addition of the College of Law in 1950, the group of colleges became a university. And in 1954 the UE Technical School opened in Caloocan, which is now known as UE-Caloocan. In 1956 the College of Medicine was born.

     Dr. Juan S. Salcedo, Jr., former Secretary of Health and Dean of the Graduate School of the University of the Philippines, was tapped to be the first dean of the College of Medicine. He, however, still had commitments to UP and recommended Dr. Jose M. Cuyegkeng to be the acting dean until 1958.

     President Dalupan was a scrupulous planner; he left nothing to chance. He would consult experts and visit universities all over the world in preparation for the opening of a college. He corresponded with Dr. Harold H. Louchs, director of the China Medical Board of New York, Inc. on medical education. The advice of the latter had lasting effects on President Dalupan’s thinking.

     Great was the concern for the quality of medical education in the country. The heads of medical schools and two government officials went to the USA on a travel grant in early 1957 to study medical education. Dr. Cuyegkeng was in the group which recommended the following on their return:

1. Gradual enrollment reduction.
2. Promotion of research.
3. Development of the spirit of philanthropy among individuals and corporations.
4. Better screening of students for admission.
5. Making the pre-medical course three years.
6. Revision of the entire medical curriculum.

     A Memorial to President Ramon Magsaysay

     The conversion of the UE College of Medicine to a non-stock, non-profit foundation in 1957 was both a memorial to one of our most beloved citizens and a pioneering advance towards a new and great goal in Philippine education.

     Ramon Magsaysay was the third president of the Republic of the Philippines who died in a plane crash in Mt. Manunggal in Cebu. The first Board of Trustees of the new foundation decided to name the institution after this most respected and loved Philippine president.

     It was the first non-profit, non-government, non-sectarian educational institution in the country. It was designed not to depend entirely on students’ fee for its existence but to receive philanthropic donations and gifts which were rare and modest in the country at the time. It was to have a limited enrollment as were the educational institutions abroad. And it was to offer an education of the highest standard and founded on “a broad base of culture”.