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.com)

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