The Ateneo de Manila University (), simply Ateneo de Manila or Ateneo, is a private, Catholic research university and basic education institution in Quezon City, Philippines. Founded in 1859 by the Jesuits, it is the second-oldest Jesuit-administered institution of higher learning in the Asia-Pacific.
Considered one of the top universities in the Philippines, the university provides primary and secondary education as well as undergraduate and graduate instruction in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and engineering, and business. It offers professional degrees through the Graduate School of Business, the School of Government, the School of Medicine and Public Health, and the Ateneo Law School. Known for its Jesuit liberal arts tradition, the humanities are a key feature of Ateneo education at all levels of study.
History
On September 25, 1969, Fr. Pacifico Ortiz, SJ was installed as the first Filipino president of the Ateneo de Manila University. At this time, the Graduate School split into the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and what would become the Graduate School of Business. In 1968, the Ateneo co-founded the Asian Institute of Management. The Ateneo college opened its doors to its first female students in 1973. The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences moved to Loyola Heights in 1976, and the Padre Faura campus closed in 1977 as the Graduate School of Business and the Law School moved to Salcedo Village, Makati. In February 1978, Ateneo opened what would become the Ateneo Computer Technology Center.
As student activism rose in the 1970s following the proclamation of martial law by President Ferdinand Marcos, Ateneans took an active role along with student organizations from other colleges and universities. On February 11, 1986, alumnus and Antique Governor Evelio Javier was shot and killed. Two weeks later, Ateneans joined thousands of Filipinos in the People Power Revolution along EDSA to oust Marcos.
In 1991, the School of Law became the first law school in the Philippines to confer the Juris Doctor degree. The Ateneo School of Government was established in 1996 and, in 1998, a campus housing the Ateneo Graduate School of Business, Ateneo School of Law, and the Ateneo School of Government, opened in Rockwell Center in Poblacion, Makati. The Science Education Complex was also completed in the Loyola Heights campus. In 2000, the School of Arts and Sciences, consisting of the undergraduate and graduate schools, was restructured into the Loyola Schools. In April 2002, the office of the university president established Pathways to Higher Education-Philippines, one of the university's outreach initiatives, with the help of the Ford and Synergeia Foundations. In July 2002, the Church of the Gesù was completed in the Loyola Heights campus. In 2003, the Ateneo entered into its partnership with Gawad Kalinga, its first formal, university-wide social action program.
In July 2006, the Manuel V. Pangilinan Center for Student Leadership was completed. The Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health facility in Ortigas Center, Pasig welcomed its first batch of professional students in June 2007. In 2008, work on a new Rizal Library facility began and a new set of university dormitories was inaugurated.
On July 24, 2022, a former mayor of Lamitan, Basilan, and two others were killed. As a result, the scheduled graduation ceremonies of the university's law school were cancelled.
Campuses
Currently, the main Ateneo de Manila campus is located along Katipunan Avenue in Loyola Heights, Quezon City, Metro Manila. The campus houses the college and the university's grade school and high schools, as well as the Loyola School of Theology. Two other campuses, in Rockwell Center and Salcedo Village, both in Makati, house the university's graduate schools of business, and law. A fourth facility in the Don Eugenio López Sr. Medical Complex in Ortigas Center, Pasig, houses its school of medicine and public health.