The Mindanao State University(MSU) with around 68,000 students, and 3,000 faculty members at present is the second largest university in the Philippines. Late Senator Dr. Ahmad Domocao Alonto, a founding member of the Makkah-based Rabita Al-Alam Al-Islami (Muslim World League) and the only Filipino recipient of the prestigious King Faisal Foundation Award for Service to Islam, authored the bill, Republic Act 1387, which paved the way for the establishment of MSU on 1 September 1961.

Dr. Antonio Isidro was the first President of MSU. He was succeeded by the late Mauyag M. Tamano, a PhD in Education graduate from Stanford University, USA. Other than being the first Muslim president of MSU, Dr. Tamano had also served later as Ambassador of the Philippines to Saudi Arabia.

The incumbent MSU President, Dr. Camar A. Umpa, a Muslim PhD graduate from the East-West Center (EWC), University of Hawaii, USA, was considered by his doctoral dissertation adviser, Dr. Harry J. Friedman, as one of his two best students in his twenty years of experience as a professor in the United States, Asia and Latin America. His doctoral dissertation committee commended highly his doctoral dissertation to the Dean of the Graduate Division, University of Hawaii, Honolulu stating that the "quality of his doctoral dissertation was at the highest level." He obtained a grade point average (GPA) of a perfect 4.0 for his doctoral units. Under an East West Center Ford Foundation Grant, Dr. Umpa completed his M.A. degree in the same university in less than one year with a GPA of 3.9 out of 4.0. Dr. Umpa, a world-class university president and a visionary leader, was a distinguished alumnus of MSU. He was the first Filipino to finish a four year course (A.B. Political Science) at MSU Marawi City in only three academic years with honors (Cum Laude).

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