Holy Angel Academy (HAA) was founded by Archbishop Pedro P. Santos and Don Juan D. Nepomuceno in 1933with the primary purpose of offering accessible quality Catholic education at the secondary level. In 1948, fifteen years after its founding, HAA started offering academic programs at the tertiary level. After opening the elementary department in 1960, HAA offered secretarial courses that were soon followed by pre-engineering courses that expanded to engineering courses a few years later.
In 1962, HAA was named Holy Angel College (HAC). Three years later, HAC opened the Graduate School of Education and the Vocational/Technical Department.
In 1981, HAC attained full university status and changed its name to Holy Angel University (HAU). Since then, the University has experienced unprecedented growth and expansion of its academic offerings in both the undergraduate and graduate programs.
HAU is the first Catholic university in the Philippines that was established by the laity.
It is a private, nonprofit higher education institution committed to providing transformative Catholic education in the basic (K-12), tertiary, and graduate levels. It is the only Catholic University in the Asia-Pacific region that has been included in the 2016 Newman Guide, which provides key information on Catholic colleges recommended by the Cardinal Newman Society for its visible commitment to faithful Catholic education.
The Philippine Commission on Higher Education (CHED) elevated Holy Angel University to an autonomous status starting in 2003. This is a recognition which the University continues to hold to the present. A number of HAU academic programs are locally accredited and internationally-certified.
Holy Angel University has been also awarded International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9001:2015 certification in 2019, and re-accreditation in 2020, for its quality management system encompassing both academic programs and support services in basic and higher education. The University is also the sole recipient of the prestigious Philippine Quality Award (PQA) in 2016 with the distinction of being among only three HEls that have achieved PQA Level 2 Recognition for Proficiency in Quality Management.