ABOUT JOSÉ RIZAL UNIVERSITY

José Rizal University was originally founded as the Far Eastern College School of Accounts, Commerce, and Finance in 1919 as a non-stock non-profit non-sectarian private educational institution to blaze the trail in the field of commercial education. Its founder was the late Vicente Fabella; the first Filipino certified public accountant. The name was subsequently changed to José Rizal College in 1922, in honor of the great Filipino patriot and martyr who tried to awaken his countrymen in his writings to the need for economic self-sufficiency and independence. 

The University was first located at R. Hidalgo Street in Quiapo, Manila. It offered the four-year bachelor’s degree course in Commerce as well as the high school course. It has continued to provide educational services since 1919 except during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines in World War II when it remained closed as a gesture of protest in spite of repeated attempts by the occupation authorities at the time to have it opened. 

The University reopened after the end of the war in 1945 and, faced with the need for expanded facilities, transferred in 1950 to its present site in Mandaluyong City, then part of the province of Rizal and subsequently Metro Manila.

The University is a founding member of the Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities (PACU) in 1932, of the Philippine Association of Collegiate Schools of Business (PACSB) in 1962, of the Private Education Retirement Annuity Association (PERAA) in 1974, and Philippine Association of Personnel Management in Private Schools (PAPMIPS) in 1997.

In its 100 years of existence, the University has achieved the singular distinction of having produced a remarkable number of successful graduates who have enjoyed the respect of the nation. Among them are included a President of the Philippines, a justice of the Supreme Court, several members of the legislature and of the Cabinet, some ambassadors, no less than twenty heads of banks and financial corporations, several heads of educational institutions, acknowledged leaders in the various fields of industry, commerce, agriculture and trade, and armed forces officers of general rank. It can rightfully claim that it has contributed its share in the molding of character and training of the successful graduates.