[BizSights] How SM rebuilt NU and made it the most important college in UAAP

Earlier than the SM Group purchased a controlling stake in Nationwide College (NU) in 2008, NU had just one campus, in Sampaloc, Manila, with round 1,800 college students. It additionally wasn’t doing nicely financially and was having issue getting enrollees after a hearth destroyed its major constructing in 1998.

Immediately, 17 years after the Sy household took over administration of the college, it has round 84,000 college students in 14 campuses with 4,000 school members. NU now has extra college students than the state college, UP (round 65,000 college students for the entire UP system as of 2025).

NU is unofficially the most important college when it comes to pupil inhabitants among the many eight colleges within the UAAP, which embrace Adamson College, Ateneo de Manila College (AdMU), Far Jap College (FEU), De La Salle College (DLSU), College of the East (UE), College of the Philippines (UP), and College of Sto. Tomas (UST).

Within the subsequent two years, NU will add three extra campuses: NU in Davao Metropolis, its fifteenth campus and its first in Mindanao, in 2026; NU in Iloilo Metropolis in 2027; and NU in Urdaneta, Pangasinan. It is usually increasing 4 campuses: in NU Clark (Pampanga), NU Mall of Asia (Pasay), NU Fairview (Quezon Metropolis), and its major campus in Sampaloc, Manila.

NU, one of many founders of the College Athletic Affiliation of the Philippines (UAAP), was the perennial doormat within the league. After the SM Group took over, it’s been dominating the UAAP Cheerdance competitors, and it made historical past on Saturday, November 29, after profitable its ninth crown total, yet another than UP and UST.

In 2014, NU, underneath then-head coach Eric Altamirano, defeated FEU and received it’s second males’s basketball championship in UAAP Season 77 after a 60-year drought. As of Sunday, November 30, the NU Bulldogs had the perfect document in Season 88 of the lads’s basketball event going into the Last 4 video games which begin on Wednesday, December 3. (READ: NU championship is a dream come true for member of 1954 Bulldogs workforce)

NU has additionally been doing nicely within the now common workforce sport of volleyball. The NU males’s workforce has received the previous 5 UAAP volleyball championships, whereas the NU ladies’s workforce, led by star participant Bella Belen, received the final two.

How did the SM Group obtain these?

Many maybe assume it’s as a result of the Sy household has some huge cash, however it may be argued that taipan Lucio Tan additionally has the sources, however has not had the identical success for the UAAP college he owns, UE. So, whereas cash is essential, there are different elements at play.

A lofty, long-term objective 

SM founder Henry Sy’s faculty training was interrupted by World Struggle II. He knew early on the significance of training as a terrific equalizer.

He had set his sights on shopping for his alma mater FEU, however talks with its controlling house owners, the Montinola household, didn’t pan out. The SM Group, nonetheless, nonetheless has a minority stake in FEU. 

He then pursued merger talks with the house owners of NU, based by Mariano Fortunato Jhocson in 1900. The varsity is commemorating its a hundred and twenty fifth 12 months this 2025 with a grand celebration and live performance at SM MOA Sky Ampitheater on Friday, December 5.

After 10 years of merger talks, Sy purchased a 60% majority stake in NU in 2008.

Hans, in a current NU1900 podcast, stated his late father had at all times been a believer in training, and wished offering inexpensive high quality training to be his legacy. 

Set targets, preserve centered

The Sy patriarch, fondly known as “Tatang,” was already 80 when the SM Group took over administration of NU in 2008, and he assigned to his fourth little one, Hans, the duty of rebuilding NU. Hans is chairman of NU.

Meritocracy and a extra skilled administration of NU was pushed, following the SM Group’s takeover. 

NU vice chairman and former NU president Teodoro J. Ocampo, a third-generation member of the Jhocson household, recalled that earlier than the SM Group took over, all the important thing positions in NU have been held by the kids of the house owners — from chairman, president, comptroller, registrar, athletic workplace, and buying workplace. 

“It was very close-knit, so you may think about them not being open-minded to having companions,” he stated within the NU podcast. After the SM Group took management, the unique house owners needed to take a again seat. 

Not being a tutorial, Hans stated his contribution to NU was to set the imaginative and prescient and the stategy. The tutorial aspect was delegated to now NU president and CEO Dr. Renato “RJ” Carlos Ermita Jr., who holds a doctorate in instructional management and administration from DLSU, Hans’ alma mater.

“When it comes to the academe, it’s RJ who’s the one behind these issues. I don’t attempt to be someone I’m not, so I get the precise guys,” Hans stated. “Enterprise-wise, we management the price and different issues, academe-wise, he (RJ) takes cost of it.” 

When the SM Group took over, the plan was to have 100,000 college students by 2027, and it’s on monitor to fulfill that objective. Ermita stated the objective is to make NU “really nationwide” by reaching out to extra college students. 

After figuring out NU’s major objectives, Hans additionally laid out three key ideas: keep centered on the objectives and targets, and keep hungry in attaining the objectives. “When you’ve gotten each, there’s probability you’ll succeed,” he stated, earlier than including the third precept, “And once you succeed, keep humble.” 

Using on SM’s malls enlargement

NU leveraged on the expansion of SM Supermalls for its enlargement. Hans stated SM may have simply donated cash to fund extra scholarships through its SM Basis, however they selected reaching out to extra college students by bodily increasing the college.

Take the case of the P2.3-billion redevelopment of SM Metropolis Iloilo, anticipated to be accomplished by the primary quarter of 2026. The enlargement of the mall contains development of 23,670 sq. meters for the NU Iloilo campus, set to open in 2027.

“As SM grows, NU grows as nicely, particularly within the malls the place we’re contributing to turning the mall right into a neighborhood,” stated Ermita within the NU podcast. “A faculty is a crucial part of any neighborhood. So the id of the mall can be altering, it turns into youthful, turns into vibrant. So the entire mall is sort of a campus of NU, in a way, since you see our college students being seen all around the mall.” 

For college kids, there are additionally benefits in having a college that’s a part of a mall. “Being inside SM complexes provides our college students fast entry to important companies like public transport, bookstores, and eating areas…,” stated Ermita in an SM Investments Company November 17 press launch.

SM’s pricing technique

In step with Henry Sy’s want to attain out to extra college students, NU follows SM’s inexpensive pricing coverage which has contributed to SM’s total success in retail. 

“Typical SM. It’s not the margin, it’s the amount,” Hans stated within the podcast. He stated this was the identical tack taken by SM when it expanded its malls, particularly outdoors Metro Manila. 

“I keep in mind, once we began to exit of Manila, my father’s order was I would like similar worth in all areas….,” he recalled his father telling him. “Simply run it [NU] like a enterprise, simply be sure that it’s inexpensive with high quality.” 

The NU is among the many most inexpensive amongst personal non-sectarian colleges with a mean of P80,000 tuition per tutorial 12 months. If in comparison with a June 2024 itemizing of tuition in choose colleges by private finance platform MoneyMax, that is decrease than DLSU’s common of round P205,000-P225,000 per 12 months, and the Ateneo de Manila College’s common of P160,000-P180,000 per 12 months. UP, after all, is the bottom amongst UAAP colleges as a result of free faculty training legislation.

“We did a balancing act. RJ was capable of keep the standard. How to make sure the standard is there, he has elevated the group. With the help of administration, we’ve upgraded the salaries of college with out actually growing a lot the schooling,” stated Hans. 

Included within the pricing technique is to improve the college’s services with out being extravagant. 

“If you happen to discover the campus, there’s nothing fancy, very primary, quite simple however very useful,” Hans stated. 

The pricing coverage has paid off as NU has been capable of considerably enhance its pupil inhabitants. Hans stated NU is now worthwhile, and because the mission is to make training inexpensive, NU has been transformed right into a non-stock, non-profit establishment. “This implies half of the earnings goes to school growth, the opposite half goes to high school growth,” he stated. 

On the educational aspect, the NU made it for the primary time within the newest QS or Quacquarelli Symonds World College Rankings 2026, a supplier of analytics within the world larger training sector. The QS Ranking assesses larger training establishments primarily based on world requirements, and helps college students resolve which college is greatest for them. NU was ranked twenty first amongst Philippine universities and 185th in Southeastern Asia.

NU secured a QS 3 Stars Ranking total with 5 Stars in employability, 4 Stars in educating, 4 Stars in social impression, 4 Stars in services, and 4 Stars in good governance.

Likewise, Ermita stated NU additionally adopted SM’s technique that places a premium on customer support in its operations like the college registrar. 

“As a result of NU is a part of SM, the belief actually is that #1, we’re superb in customer support, so we at all times problem our individuals, that’s the expectation,” he stated. 

Restoring college pleasure

When the SM Group took over, given the doormat popularity of the college, there was low pleasure in being related to NU. 

That’s not the case. How did NU restore college pleasure? 

Hans stated he used sports activities as a advertising and marketing software and to shortcut the method of attracting extra college students to enroll in NU, on condition that it will take longer to attain this academic-wise. 

He additionally pressured the connection between the scale of a college inhabitants and sports activities. 

“After we got here in, it was simply over 1,000 college students solely. How will you select athletes with 1,000 inhabitants? Proper now, it’s straightforward, we’re 85,000 college students so it’s rather a lot simpler to decide on good athletes now,” he instructed his godson, basketball coach and sports activities analyst, Charles Tiu, in a current BNC interview.

Then-NU athletics director and veteran PBA participant Joaquin “Chito” Loyzaga, in a Rappler article “Who let the NU Bulldogs out?” cited the next causes for the success of the NU sports activities program:

• First, Hans requested his mates to assist the college in its numerous sports activities applications. These have been individuals who have been passionate a few explicit sport and who poured not simply much-needed sources, but in addition time to enhance the college’s standing.
• Second, a transparent growth program for the actual sport.
• Third, having the precise individual to execute this system, which included hiring Loyzaga as athletics director in 2015.

One other good rent was FEU alumna Ghicka Bernabe, who led the NU Pep Squad to seven championships in 9 seasons earlier than retiring as head coach in 2022. Earlier than the SM Group took over in 2008, NU was in final place within the UAAP Cheerdance from 2002 to 2008.

Dr. Otie Camangian, presently the NU sports activities and athletics director, additionally took observe of the function performed by Hans within the sports activities program. 

“He’s very fingers on,” Camangian stated within the BNC interview. “As a lot as his schedule permits…in pep rallies, he’s there; in athletes’ recognition, he’s there; in [UAAP] video games, he’s there. He takes time speaking to athletes, having selfies with them, very fatherly-like strategy, which could be very inspiring to athletes.” 

Immediately, graduating highschool college students, given a alternative of which college to go to, not have simply AdMU, DLSU, UST, or UP in thoughts however NU too. This was a objective which Loyzaga talked about again in 2015 after NU received the lads’s basketball event.

And that is one facet that Hans is especially pleased with. “Like what I’m doing with NU, the most important turnaround I used to be capable of do with NU is after I made the scholars pleased with their college,” he stated.

And, there’s no stopping the SM Group from additional increasing the college. It plans to have 20 NU campuses by 2028. UP presently has 17 campuses.

“Individuals tease us: will we intend to have as many campuses as SM’s (89) malls?” stated Ermita. “The reply I at all times give is, so long as there are college students in a specific space who aren’t served and aren’t given a chance to review nicely, we are going to strive our greatest to be there.”

Hans added: “Individuals would now say, ‘Wow, you guys…you’ve made it already. However I say, no, we’re simply beginning.”

On the price the NU is increasing, it’s going to seemingly be the most important college in the entire nation, not simply within the UAAP. In a number of years, will probably be overtaking the Polytechnic College of the Philippines (with a inhabitants of 97,000). – Rappler.com