In 1948, the Oblates established the Notre Dame College as the first college founded in Cotabato City and the entire province. Robert E. Sullivan was its first Rector and Dean. When it opened, there were only 128 students and a pioneering faculty of eight, with classes being held at the Notre Dame of Cotabato Girls Department building. In 1949, the Notre Dame College acquired its own building. The college received full government recognition for its course offerings in Liberal Arts, Commerce and Education in 1953. In the same year, the College of Law started offering first year law subjects. Complete elementary education was offered later with the establishment of the Notre Dame Training Department, envisioned to be a teaching laboratory for Education students majoring in Elementary Education. With the increase in enrollment, the administration saw the need of finding a new school site. On February 27, 1959, the cornerstone-laying and blessing of the present University site was held with no less than the Very Rev. Leo Deschatelets, OMI, Superior General of the Oblates, presiding over the ceremony. In an order signed by then Secretary of Education Onofre Corpuz, the Notre Dame College was elevated to University status on March 11, 1969. The Notre Dame University was formally inaugurated on September 9, 1969, highlighted by the investiture of the Very Rev. Joseph Milford, OMI as the first University President. The decade of the 1970s brought about significant changes in the life of the University. From a struggling small college in 1948, it metamorphosed into a University in twenty-one years of its existence. One significant change was the assumption of the first Filipino President Orlando Quevedo. In 1974, NDU opened its Nursing College that was approved by the Bureau of Private Schools. In June 1975, the College of Commerce offered two new courses: Management and Financial Management. In November 1975, three new graduate courses were offered: Master of Arts in Education major in Elementary School Management/Secondary School Management; and Master of Arts in Guidance. In 1980, The Philippine Association of Schools, Colleges and Universities certified the Level I accreditation of the three colleges of the University, the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Commerce and the Teachers' College. In the same year, the Core Curriculum was introduced integrating both Christian and Islamic Values in all core subjects taken by the students. In 1983, a program towards a doctoral degree in the field of Education, major in Peace and Development Education was introduced. In school year 1997-98, the University, in cooperation with the Mindanao Advanced Education Project of the Commission on Higher Education, offered a Doctor of Philosophy in Peace and Development Education and Master of Arts in Peace and Development Education. In 2001, NDU was afforded a deregulated status by the Commission on Higher Education. Hence, NDU enjoys the following benefits: Issuance of Special Order, Deregulated Monitoring/ Evaluation of CHED, Access to Subsidies/ Assistance, Curricular Prescriptions, and Conferring Honoris Causa.
Program
Graduate School
Doctor of Philosophy in Peace and Development
Doctor of Education Major in: Educational Management
NDU Cotabato City produced a lot of professionals and topnotchers since 1970's but the listed below are some of the recorded top notchers in 2011 to Present.
