During the term of UP President Onofre D. Corpuz in 1975 an interdisciplinary team within the university conceived of an autonomous unit which would become an institution for fisheries and marine science education and research. The idea was fleshed out in a proposal entitled "Education Development Plan for the University of the Philippines in the Visayas", a six-volume report by the interdisciplinary team. The new university would evolve from the UP College of Iloilo and the College of Fisheries in Diliman, which would transfer to its new site in the Visayas. Funding was to come partly from a government loan, to be negotiated with the World Bank for the development of fisheries education.