Ateneo de Zamboanga began in 1912 as Escuela Catolica, a parochial school run by Spanish Jesuits which was later taken over by the American Jesuits in 1930. In 1948, the school was officially recognized as a Jesuit school apart from the parish and expanded after the liberation period from high school to college and then the graduate school in 1976. In 1994, it entered into a consortium with the Zamboanga Medical School Foundation and eventually took over the latter’s Medical School which eventually became the University’s School of Medicine. In 2001, Ateneo de Zamboanga was granted university status by the Commission of Higher Education and has now been granted Autonomous and full deregulation status. It has Level III re-accreditation by PAASCU and is recognized as a Center for Development in Information Technology and Center for Development in English.
Ateneo de Zamboanga University (AdZU) is located at La Purisima Street, Zamboanga City. It has 795 regular staff (teaching/non-teaching) and 15 members of the Board of Trustees. It has a student population of 3,777 in the college, 378 in the graduate school, and 1,085 in the high school, 1,349 in the grade school, 185 in the School of Medicine and 45 in College of Law.
This is the University’s second renewal for PCNC Certification. It was granted a 5-year certification for donee institution status on October 13, 2003 which ended on October 12, 2008. On its first renewal, it was granted another 5-year certification on April 8, 2010which ended on March 3, 2015.
The University shares a spiritual vision of a New Mindanao with diverse communities enjoying peace based on healing and justice and sustaining a development that nurtures faith, culture and environment, a Mindanao fully integrated in the country that is governed with integrity, providing total human security especially to the poor and hungry, as it engages in local and global solidarity: A new Mindanao at the heart of new Philippines. AdZU realizes its mission by its twofold mission: a) advancing leadership education and b) advocating social transformation, through Filipino, Catholic and Jesuit tradition.
The University’s major operations include Teaching (Basic Education, College, Graduate Programs, and Professional Degrees); Research; Outreach and Formation; Integrated Non-academic Formation, Social Involvement of Faculty and Students, and; Scholarships.
