UP approves amendments to socialized tuition scheme

MANILA, Philippines - More than eight months after freshman Kristel Tejada committed suicide over tuition woes, the University of the Philippines has reportedly approved several amendments to the UP System Code and its socialized tuition scheme.

But members of the faculty and student body yesterday mobilized to criticize some members of the UP Board of Regents (BOR), the university’s highest policy-making body, for allegedly “railroading” the passage of the amendments.

In a phone interview with The STAR, staff regent Rara Ramirez said only five of the eleven members of the BOR were present during Thursday’s meeting. The other members of the board that were present in the meeting were UP president Alfredo Pascual, Commission on Higher Education chair Patricia Licuanan, faculty regent Lourdes Abadingo and regent Magdaleno Albarracin.

But because Rep. Roman Romulo, the chairman of the House Committee on Education, confirmed his attendance, the board decided to proceed with the agenda pending the arrival of the congressman, Ramirez said.

She explained the BOR approved the proposals “in anticipation of Romulo’s arrival, but he never came so the matter should be verified with the university secretary.”

The minutes of the meeting have yet to be released. 

Ramirez said there was intent in approving the proposals but whether or not the approval was binding was a “gray area.”

Pascual did not respond to text message or calls, while UP vice president for public affairs Prospero de Vera was not available as of press time yesterday. 

Amendments

UP Diliman vice chancellor for student affairs Marion Tan said among the proposals approved by the BOR were the revisions to three provisions in the UP System Code.

These provisions allegedly forced UP Manila behavioral science freshman Tejada, who had outstanding balances in the university, to file a leave of absence.

Based on the revisions released by political organization STAND UP, the amendments to the code would include a provision noting that “in no instance shall a student who has unpaid loan obligations due to financial incapacity... be barred from registering for, and attending, his/her classes.”

This revises an earlier provision which stated that students who fail to settle the account by the opening of the next semester would not be allowed to register.

Instead, students who have outstanding balances will have to settle their accounts before the university could release their diplomas, transcripts and other academic credentials following graduation.

The revision also removed the provision barring students who have not duly matriculated from being admitted to any class.

Rather, the revision said that “all students must be duly registered before they are allowed to attend classes.”

“A student who is unable to pay the required tuition and other fees due to financial incapacity may apply for a loan from the Student Loan Board to complete their registration,” the revision added. 

Revisions are not solutions

But according to Tan, the approved revisions are not solutions to the problem of students who could not pay tuition.

“The basic premise (of the revised provisions) is still the old premise. The students (who could not pay tuition) will still have to apply for loans,” she explained.

Tan lamented that UP appears to be operating like banks, as it will impose a six percent interest per year on the loans.

“It will just increase the debt of the students,” Tan said. “Education is a right. The state, being the primary duty bearer in promoting and protecting the rights of people, should promote the right to education and should eliminate all obstacles that prevent students from accessing and fully enjoying this right,” she added. 

Also approved during the meeting were the proposed revisions to the Socialized Tuition and Financial Assistance Program (STFAP) scheme of UP, which sets the amount of tuition that students have to pay depending on their socioeconomic status.

STAND UP said that among the revisions were the improvements in the criteria in assigning the brackets and the upward adjustment in income cut-offs in four of the five brackets.

Also included in the revision was the increase of the monthly allowance given to students assigned to the lowest bracket.

Tan said that while the proposal could speed up the application process, the pre-test results for the new criteria in assigning brackets are the same.

She said the issue should not be limited to the procedure but with the entire tuition scheme.

“The mandate of the university is to make higher quality education accessible, especially to the poor but academically excellent students,” she added.

Tan also said UP should roll back tuition and look into the “admissions process and create affirmative action so that students from disadvantaged and poor sectors” can enter the university. 

No student representation

Ramirez also said that she and Abadingo called for the deferment in approving the revisions as student regent Krista Melgarejo was absent due to illness.

Ramirez maintained that the student representative should have been present during the passage of decisions that would affect the student body.

In a phone interview, Melgarejo said she was not surprised that the BOR took advantage of her absence to pass decisions that are not beneficial to the students.

She stressed that the STFAP scheme and the student loans are just band-aid solutions to the problem that poor but deserving students could not afford the cost of education in UP.

She called for the rollback of tuition, which amounts to as much as P1,500 per unit for students classified in the highest bracket in UP Diliman, Manila, and Los Baños.