The university was established on May 10, 1907, as the Colegio de San Pablo by six nuns from the Sisters of St. Paul of Chartres (SPC) led by Mother Ephrem Marie Fieu. The nuns came to the Cagayan Valley region upon the invitation of Bishop Dennis Joseph Dougherty. The school was initially hosted inside a Spanish convent adjacent to a cathedral. The institution changed its name to Colegio del Sagrado Corazon de Jesus in 1909 and later to Sacred Heart of Jesus Institution (SHOJI) in 1925. The school was moved from its previous location in a convent to separate grounds acquired by the SPC from the Dominican Order due to the increased number of enrollees and the expansion of its curriculum.^[1]

During the Japanese occupation of the Philippines in 1941, the school complex was used as a military garrison and hospital by the Japanese. The entire campus of the school was razed when the Japanese forces garrisoned in the school were attacked by the Allied forces during the Liberation of Tuguegarao.

After the war, the school changed its name to St. Paul College of Tuguegarao (SPCT) in 1948 as part of an initiative to become the first Teacher-Training Institution in Cagayan Valley. In 1961, the SPCT began offering college education and became the first Philippine Accrediting Association of Schools, Colleges and Universities (PAASCU) accredited institution. On January 18, 1965, the entire complex was razed by a fire.^[1]

The school became the first university in Cagayan Valley in 1982,^[1] and was granted autonomous status by the Commission on Higher Education in 2002.^[2] It received accreditation from more bodies and institutions such as TUV Rheinland which gave the SPUP, ISO 9001 Certification in 2000 and the Asian Association of Schools of Business International in 2014. The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines through the Episcopal Commission on Culture (CBCP-ECC) designated the SPUP as a Catholic Center for Culture in 2012.^[1]

The university has an Authority to Accept Foreign Students from the Bureau of Immigration, and since 2016, has been granted authority by the Commission on Higher Education to establish linkages with foreign educational institutions.^[2] It is the only school in Cagayan that is allowed to accept students from abroad. As of 2024, there are 486 foreign nationals who are enrolled in the university, who are all in its graduate program. These include students from the United States, China, Indonesia, Japan and Vietnam.^[3]

• St. Paul University Manila, Metro Manila
• St. Paul University Quezon City, Metro Manila
• St. Paul University at San Miguel, Bulacan
• St. Paul University Dumaguete, Negros Oriental
• St. Paul University Iloilo, Iloilo City
• St. Paul University Surigao, Surigao del Norte

• Official website