Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University - North La Union - Main Campus

Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University was created on 15 January 1981 by Presidential Decree No. 1778, which merged four state institutions in La Union: the Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State College at Bacnotan, the Southern Ilocos Polytechnic State College at Agoo, and both the La Union School of Arts and Trades and the La Union Community College at San Fernando. Sapilang Elementary School, which stood inside the Bacnotan campus, was integrated as well. The North La Union Campus at Bacnotan is the seat of the university's central administration, and it occupies the site of the Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State College, the institution that gave the university its name. Bacnotan sits on the coast north of San Fernando, and the campus's role as administrative centre means it carries university-wide functions alongside its own instructional programmes. One point of confusion is worth clearing up: Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University is a different institution from Mariano Marcos State University. This one is in La Union and was created in 1981 by Presidential Decree No. 1778; the other is in Ilocos Norte and was created three years earlier, in 1978, by Presidential Decree No. 1279. The similar names and adjacent provinces cause them to be mistaken for one another regularly.