Central Philippine University (informally Central or CPU) is a private research university located in Iloilo City, Philippines. It was established in 1905 by American Baptist missionaries, becoming the first Baptist university in the country and the second American private university to be established in Asia. It was originally as a vocational school for poor boys. But later in 1913, women were gradually admitted to the school, and eventually the school started offering high school education in 1920. In 1923, the school started offering college degrees, and in 1953, attained university status.
Central has close ties with the Baptist Church and various Protestant Churches. Although affiliated with a Protestant denomination, it is one of the first universities in the country to accept students regardless of religious affiliation, imposing no religious requirement. The university is affiliated with the Convention of Philippine Baptist Churches and maintains fraternal ties with the International Ministries of the American Baptist Churches, known before as the American Foreign Mission Society.
Central pioneered nursing education in the Philippines, when Presbyterian missionaries established the Union Mission Training School for Nurses in 1906. In that same year, the CPU Republic (Central Philippine University Republic), the University's student government was organized, making it the first student government to be established the country.
Central Philippine University is one of few private higher educational institutions in the Philippines that have been granted full autonomous status by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), the same government agency that accredited some of its programs as Centers of Excellence and Centers of Development. It is also one out of ten ISO certified educational institutions in the Philippines. ISO (International Organization for Standardization) is a network of the national standards institutes of 153 countries, on the basis of one member per country. The Bureau of Product Standards has been the Philippines representative to ISO, of which the said institute has accredited the university in having a International Organization for Standardization (ISO) certification.
Presently, CPU provides instruction in the kindergarten all the way up to the post-graduate levels. In the undergraduate and graduate levels, its covered disciplines include the Arts, Sciences, Business, Accountancy, Computer Studies, Education, Engineering, Tourism, Nursing, Theology, Law, and Medicine.
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