Established

The Bulacan State University started as an intermediate school in 1904. It was established during the early years Of the American occupation by virtue of Act 74 of the Philippine Commission in 1901, which created the then Department of Public Instruction with the mandate to establish schools in every pueblo of the country and reorganize those already existing. Instructions in the intermediate schools established during that time were supplemented with trade or industrial instruction.

The Bulacan Trade School

In 1907, Governor Teodoro Sandiko of Bulacan started to look for funds to put up a trade school for his constituents. His efforts paid off when the intermediate school became the Bulacan Trade School in 1909. The school had an American principal and five teachers, four of whom are Americans, the so-called Thomasites.

The First Filipino Principal

Upon the implementation in 1918 of the Philippine Autonomy Act passed by the U.S. Congress in 1916, the Bulacan Trade School was formally turned-over to the Filipinos with Mr. Basilio Abiado as the first Filipino principal. He was later succeeded by Mr. Dionisio Patag. In 1920, with Mr. Juan Lopez as the principal-teacher, the intermediate course was finally dissolved to give way for the secondary trade curriculum. By 1926, the school offered the complete secondary trade curriculum with Mr. Gonzalo Villaverde as the principal-teacher. Due to limited facilities at the time, the Bulacan Trade School was sharing the use of the classrooms of Bulacan High School (now the Marcelo H. del Pilar High School) for their related-subjects classes. Mr. Isaias P. Maclang became the principal of the school in 1931 followed by Mr. Melanio Orbeta, who took over the position in 1938. Mr. Orbeta held the position throughout the Second World War and until the reopening of the school in 1945 when Mr. Deogracias P. Flores succeeded him as the principal.

After the war

In 1945, after repairing the damage suffered during the Second World War; the school reopened with a few hand tools and materials donated by the U.S. army stationed in the provincial capitol. With the steady increase in enrollment, more buildings were constructed. In 1949, the United States Information Service (USIS) donated two Quonset huts, which were used as shops and classrooms. In 1951, the two-storey related subjects building was constructed with funds from the War Damage Rehabilitation Fund, and in 1952, the one-storey Girls' Trades building was built with half of the cost of construction was donated by the school's PTA.

The Bulacan National Trade School

On June 20, 1953, the school was nationalized under R.A. NO. 908 and became the Bulacan National Trade School. Through the assistance of the Philippine Council for US Aid (PHILCUSA) and International Cooperation Agency (ICA) and the National Economic Council (NEC), the school acquired much-needed office equipment, tools, machineries and buildings.

The Bulacan School of Arts and Trades

The Bulacan National Trade School was converted into the Bulacan National School of Arts and Trades (BNSAT) on July 1, 1957 by virtue of R.A. 1800, passed through the efforts of the then Congressman Florante C. Roque of the First District of Bulacan. With its conversion, Mr. Santiago G. Roxas was appointed as its first superintendent. During his term, the school offered the two-year post-secondary courses with specializations in automotive, machine shop and girls' trade courses. Mr. Roxas was the first to envision the conversion of the school into a college and eventually into a university. Later, the name of the school was changed to Bulacan School of Arts and Trades through legislative action. Mr. Arnulfo M. Tongio of Bacolor, Pampanga served as Principal until 1963. He was succeed by Mr. Leandro Jimenez who served as the school principal until his retirement in 1973. Mr. Roxas retired in December 1964. He was succeeded by Mr. Deogracias Flores as the second superintendent of the school.

The Bulacan College of Arts and Trades

By virtue of Republic Act 4470, the Bulacan School of Arts and Trades (BSAT) was converted into the Bulacan College of Arts and Trades (BCAT) on June 19, 1965. The Board of Trustees designated Mr. Deogracias Flores as the Acting President of the College. Upon its conversion, the college began to expand its technical and technician course offerings by adding shop specialization and also offered the four-year Bachelor of Science in Industrial Education (BSIE) in 1967 with majors in drafting, machine shop practice, woodworking and automotive, cosmetology, electronics and electricity.

On September 27, 1967, Mr. Gavino M. Carpio was appointed Acting President of the College and then full-pledged President the following year. It was during his time that the five-year engineering programs were added to the courses offered by the College. Upon his retirement on December 30, 1973, Dr. Antonio T. Federizo, the Vice President for Academic Affairs, was designated Officer-in-Charge of the College and later Acting President. He was appointed as full fledged President on November 29, 1976. In summer of 1977, the College started offering graduate program, the Master of Arts in Teaching with majors in technical and vocational subjects. After Dr. Federizo's demise on November 7, 1977, Mr. Rosario Pimentel, the then Vice-President for Academic Affairs was designated as Officer-in-Charge.

On March 27, 1978, Mr. Ernesto Valencia was appointed Acting President of the College until his retirement on November 7, 1983. Upon his retirement, Dr. Amelia R. Horca, the College Dean, was designated as Officer- in-Charge of the College.

Dr. Rosario Pimentel

Upon his return after earning his doctorate degree from U.P., Dr. Rosario Pimentel was appointed as BCAT President on November 26, 1983. Under his able leadership, the college continued to expand its curricular offerings and develop its facilities to meet the needs of the growing student population. The teacher education curriculum added more major fields of specialization in secondary education. New majors in the engineering program were also added. Doctoral program was offered and new majors in the master's program were introduced. His term also saw the completion of the new three-storey integrated building (now Federizo Hall), the constructions of a new canteen, the student services building, the main gate of the College along McArthur Highway, and the heroes park, and the renovations of shop rooms. He relentlessly enlisted the support of the parents and the national and local political leaders for the conversion of the College into a university.

The Bulacan State University

On December 30, 1993, Dr. Pimentel's efforts bore fruit, when President Fidel V. Ramos signed House Bill 461 into law, known as Republic Act 7665, which converted the Bulacan College of Arts and Trades into the Bulacan State University, with him as the first BSU President.

The conversion into a university provided more impetus to the administration to implement a wide range of institutional development programs, which included upgrading of academic qualifications of faculty members, streamlining the curricular programs by creating colleges and institutes, securing state-of-the-art instructional facilities, physical plant development and expansion, and broadening access to education by establishing additional satellite campuses.

The University Campuses

The University is now maintaining five campuses within the Province of Bulacan. In addition to the main campus in the City of Malolos, it has satellite campuses in the town of Bustos, in the City of San Jose Del Monte, in Matungao, Bulacan, and in Hagonoy established in 1976,.1998, 2000, and 2011 respectively.

The AACCUP Level 3 Accreditation

The Pimentel administration made bold and decisive moves to achieve higher levels of excellence in educational services of the institution. In 1997, beginning with the teacher education and engineering programs, the University submitted itself for voluntarily accreditation by the Accrediting Agency of Chartered Colleges and Universities in the Philippines (AACCUP). In July of 2007, the AACCUP granted Level 3 accreditation status to the elementary, secondary and industrial education programs of the College of Education. These were the first education programs that have been granted such accreditation status the highest so far among the public higher education institutions in Region 3. To date, most of the Programs of the University have at least Level Il accredited status and gearing for Level 3 as well.

The BulSU College of Law

In 2002, a landmark agreement between the University and the Integated Bar of the Philippines, Bulacan Chapter, was made to establish the BSI-J - Marcelo H. Del Pilar College of Law. Subsequently, the Marcelo H. Del Pilar Law Foundation, Inc. was created to support the program of the college. The Technical Panel for Legal Education of the Commission on Higher Education hailed this move as innovative - the first of its kind in the Philippines. The first batch of graduates of the college who took the 2006 Bar Examinations garnered an impressive passing average of 42.8 percent, which was much higher than the national passing average of 30.6 percent. With this performance, the statistical data issued by Supreme Court placed the BSU - Marcelo H. Del Pilar College of Law in number 16 in the ranking of the 103 colleges of law in the country that participated in the said examinations. Since June 2009, when the Marcelo H. Del Pilar Law Foundation, Inc. left to the University the sole responsibility to run its law program, the college was renamed BSU College of Law.

Global Participation

The new millennium saw Bulacan State University going global and participating in cross-border education with other Asian countries such as South Korea, Peoples Republic of China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia. The University signed agreements with educational institutions in these countries for the offering of various programs of the BSU especially the doctoral and master's programs. The University, in partnerships with Korean institutions, also hosts Korean students for their English language course. These programs paved the way for the on-going students and faculty exchanges and visitations with those institutions abroad.

The BSU, which started as an intermediate school in 1904, is now a well known and respected public university for its achievements. It has produced more than fifty board examinations topnotch in the fields of engineering, architecture and teacher education. To date, the University has more than twenty thousand students and enrolment is increasing. It has one of the largest enrolments among state colleges and universities outside of Metro Manila. This is an indication that the BSU has earned the trust and confidence of its clientele as it continues its unwavering commitment to pursue excellence in providing quality university education to its students.