URDANETA CITY – A new university was born in Pangasinan soon after the provincial board approved last week a resolution of the city council here converting the City College of Urdaneta (CCU) into a university.
The CCU, founded 40 years ago by the then municipality of Urdaneta, finally became the sixth university in the province of Pangasinan.
City Mayor Amadeo Perez Jr., chairman of the board of trustees of the CCU, said all what was needed to convert the school into a university was a city council resolution duly approved by the provincial board.

“In essence, the Sangguniang Panlungsod (city council) resolution had already been approved by the provincial board. So, officially the City College of Urdaneta was already converted into a university,” Perez told newsmen.
He said with its conversion into a university, CCU has now been renamed University of the City of Urdaneta (UCU).
The SP passed the measure because it is fully convinced that CCU is already qualified to attain a university status, judging from its present number of enrollees at some 6,000 to date. He stressed that CCU’s enrolment is bigger than the number of enrollees in some of the existing universities and colleges in Pangasinan today. “Soon after the approval of the city council resolution by the provincial board, CCU no doubt became the newest university in Pangasinan,” said Perez who was instrumental in the establishment of CCU in 1966 in his very first term as mayor of the then municipality of Urdaneta. Though he took some years of vacation in public service, he came back again as municipal mayor till he was elected for three consecutive terms as congressman of the fifth district of Pangasinan.
He was returned to the mayorship again in 2001 and is now on his second term as city mayor here.
The other universities in the province are University of Pangasinan, Lyceum-Northwestern University and University of Luzon, all in Dagupan City; Virgen Milagrosa University Foundation in San Carlos City and Pangasinan State University with its main campus in Lingayen and with satellite campuses in Sta. Maria, Asingan, Urdaneta and San Carlos cities, Binmaley and Infanta.
Perez explained that there was no need anymore for the university status of CCU to pass through the Commission on High Education (CHED) because the school is operated solely by the city government.
The CHED exercises supervision over CCU but the complete supervision belongs to the city government of Urdaneta.
Dr. Elizabeth Montero now heads the UCC. She will sit down as the first UCU president following an installation rite to be set soon by the university board of trustees headed by Perez.