Supporting UP Manila’s thrust in promoting collaborative research on the country’s health challenges and to provide a venue for medical students to obtain dual and higher, research-based degrees, the Henry Sy Foundation donated P300 million to the UP Medical Alumni Foundation Inc. that will support the construction of the 11-story Medical Sciences Building.
The construction period is expected to take 18 to 24 months with substantial completion by December 2020.
In addition to the grant of Henry Sy Foundation, the other donations will come from UP alumni, their families and supporters of UP Manila. The UP Medical Alumni Foundation, through the leadership of its chairman and president Dr. Rody Sy, has been raising funds for the project for the past years.
The upcoming Medical Sciences Building will be constructed within the UP Manila complex in Ermita, Manila and will have a total floor area of almost 9,900 square meters. The teaching facility will have the following features: two theaters, 42 classrooms, three board rooms and an alumni lounge, a special event hall and two multi-purpose halls, four upper floors that can accommodate new programs of the college, a patient safety center and two clinical simulation wings.
UPCM is the first medical college in the country to offer a shortened medical curriculum from a two-degree, nine-year standard medical program into the seven-year medical curriculum or the Integrated Arts Medicine Program. This program admits high school graduates directly into the College and includes one year of internship.
UPCM has been designated as a center of excellence in Medical Education by the Commission on Higher Education.
The Henry Sy Foundation Inc., a personal foundation of SM founder Henry Sy Sr., is a non-stock, non-profit organization that aims to empower the youth and foster the culture of achievement by giving grants to educational institutions to drive Philippine social development. The foundation began with providing assistance to educational institutions. The foundation’s projects are undertaken in partnership with the SM group and its foundations to support educational institutions in promoting academic excellence as a key to a brighter future for the youth.
Through the years, the foundation was able to establish and support several academic infrastructures such as the Henry Sy Sr. Primary School Building in Xavier School, Nuvali Laguna; Henry Sy Sr. Innovation Center in Miriam College, Quezon City; NU Sports Academy in Calamba, Laguna; NU Nazareth School in Manila; UP Professional Schools in BGC, Taguig and a Henry Sy Sr. Hall each at Immaculate Conception Academy, San Juan City and at Assumption College in Makati City.
The UPMAFI is an organization composed of graduates of the UP College of Medicine. Through the years, the organization committed itself to the ideals of the College of Medicine and responds to the needs of the University, their fellow alumni and the Filipino community.
