Automatic Tuition Hikes Allowed

This coming school year, students and their parents will have to face another round of tuition fee increases.  The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) issued Memorandum No. 14 allowing private schools and universities to raise tuition by 7.6 percent, consistent with the current inflation rate, without prior consultation.

BY ZOFIA LEAL
Bulatlat

PERENNIAL BURDEN: Tuition fee increases are a perennial burden not only to parents, but also to students, like these ones from the St. Louis University in Baguio City, who yearly face the grim prospect of having to drop out of school altogether as the cost of education continually rises PHOTO BY ACE ALEGRE

This coming school year, students and their parents will have to face another round of tuition increases.  The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) issued Memorandum No. 14 allowing private schools and universities to raise tuition by 7.6 percent, consistent with the current inflation rate, without prior consultation.

Based on guidelines issued by the CHED national office, higher education institutions (HEIs) that plan to increase tuition  beyond 7.6 percent would have to undergo prior consultation with the student council, faculty association, three members of the alumni and the school administration.  HEIs that raise  beyond 7.6 percent without prior consultation would face sanctions such as revocation of their permits, downgrading of standards; accreditations or even possible closure.  

The CHED Memorandum No. 14 or the “Guidelines and Procedures to be observed by Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) intending to increase Tuition and Other School Fees and introduce New Fees” will be put in effect this school year.  The memo replaced the CHED Memorandum No. 13 issued 1998.  The new memorandum sets the prevailing inflation rate as ceiling for increasing tuition  without prior consultation.  The new guideline is supposedly the CHED’s response to the clamor against continuously  increasing tuition and other fees, which render access to education more difficult during these times of economic hardship and crisis.

The CHED said that Memorandum No. 14 has the following features:

1.       it covers not only tuition but “other school fees” increases including “new fees”;

2.       allowable increase in both tuition and other fees less than or equivalent to the prevailing year’s inflation rates, shall not be subjected to consultations;

3.       increase of tuition and other fees over the prevailing year’s average inflation rate shall require a consultation process with the concerned sectoral representatives;

4.       New fees shall be for actual specific student services rendered as may be identified by the school authorities and certified by the recognized student council and faculty association;

5.       Submission of a Certificate of Agreement signed by the duly authorized representatives of the HEI’s Administration, Student Councils/Governments, Faculty, Alumni and/or non-teaching permanent associations whenever applicable in cases that application of new fees are initiated and agreed upon by the students;

6.       The recognized student publication should be allowed to cover the consultation;

7.       The Higher Education Institutions shall submit all annual report on increases in other fees and as to how they were utilized;

8.       Organization of the Task Force on Tuition and Other School Fees at the regional levels, in lieu of the Multi-Sectoral Committee on Tuition;

9.       For applications referred by the CHED Regional Office to the Regional Task Force on Tuition and Other School Fees, the regional office shall enclose the application with its recommendation to the Executive Director within 30 days upon resolution by the Task Force but in no case later than April 15 of the year the intended increase shall be implemented.

Institutionalizing increases

The National Union of Students in the Philippines (NUSP), an alliance of student councils nationwide, said that while it appears that the CHED through Memorandum No. 14  is trying to control fee increases by expanding the coverage to include other fees and new fees; for requiring prior consultations; and providing for stricter monitoring, it actually gives HEIs more leeway to increase tuition. The NUSP said that with the memorandum, CHED institutionalized automatic annual increases in tuition, other fees and new fees as it removes the students’ right to be consulted regarding increases below the prevailing inflation rate. NUSP said that students must be consulted regardless of how high or low the planned increase is. 

The NUSP also said that HEIs circumvent the required consultations by implementing ladderized tuition increases.  Ladderized tuition increases, said NUSP, is the practice of imposing higher increases for incoming first year students while maintaining the ceiling for increases for higher years. HEIs are able to impose higher fee increases for incoming first year students as the latter could not protest as they are not aware of previous rates, and are not yet organized and represented in the student council.  The NUSP said that with this practice, HEIs are actually able to increase fees beyond the ceiling without prior consultation.

Furthermore, the NUSP said, HEIs dominate the Regional Task Force on Tuition  and Other School Fees, the body mandated to monitor, review, and approve fee increases.  Out of the nine members of the task force only two are sectoral representatives while the others are representatives of school owners, administrators, and the CHED.  The most affected sectors, the students and parents, are clearly outnumbered.  

Tuition increases

As of May 5, 2006, 458 or 32 percent of the total 1,465 private HEIs have applied for tuition hike.  In Region 10 alone, 14 private colleges and universities have already secured an approval from CHED.  Among the schools with CHED-approved increases are Xavier University, Lourdes College and Capitol University.  In Iloilo, 12 HEIs have increased its tuition with 8 schools even going beyond the set limit.  These are the Central Philippine University (8%), John B. Lacson Colleges Foundation Molo (13.226%), John B. Lacson Colleges Foundation Arevalo (10%), Saint Anne College of Iloilo (9.9882%), Saint Vincent Ferrer Seminary (9.844%), Saint Therese MTCC Magdalo (10.02%), University of Iloilo (10%) and Western Institute of Technology (7.91%) 

In the National Capital Region, 97 out of 292 private and public schools have also increased their tuition, with 54  increasing over the inflation rate.  These include Perpetual Help College of Manila (15%), De La Salle- Araneta University (10%), St. Joseph’s College (20%), La Consolacion de Paro (15%) and La Consolacion Manila (15%).

The University of Sto. Tomas will be implementing a 5-6 percent increase while the Far Eastern University will implement a 12 percent increase for all its courses except the College of Nursing, which will increase fees by 33 percent.  The University of the East will also be increasing its fees for business administration courses by 20 percent and all incoming freshment will have to pay 25 percent more.      

In 2003, both the Far Eastern University and the University of the East were included in the top 1000 corporations. 

Lack of budget for State Universities

The Kabataan Party (Youth Party) said that there is a significant rise in the number of transferees from private tertiary institutions to State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) due to the high rate of tuition increases of private schools.  

But due to financial constraints, state universities are limiting their number of students.  From the more than 60,000 high school graduates that take the University of the Philippines College Admission Test (UPCAT) every year, only 12,471 applicants are accepted.  At the University of the Philippines College of Nursing only 70 students or .005 percent of the 14,000 applicants are admitted. 

At the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) only 7,357 students are accepted from the 50,000 to 80,000 who take the PUP College Entrance Test (PUPCET).

Those who managed to pass however would still have to face other tuition issues.  The ladderized tuition hike is also being implemented in SUCs.   

The NUSP and the Kabataaan Party said that the issues of continuing increases in tuition and the commercialization of education are being faced by the students and their parents together. NUSP president Marco Delos Reyes said that students recognize that high tuition rates are a burden to their parents especially amid the economic crisis.  The parents, on the other hand, are realizing that their role is not only to put their children through school but to also assert their children’s right to accessibile quality education. Bulatlat

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