CHED orders no tuition hike in state universities

In line with the 10-point agenda of President Gloria Arroyo on "Education for All", the Commission on Higher Education has prohibited all state colleges and universities in the country from raising their tuition and other fees this coming school year.

The order is contained in a March 30 memorandum signed by Commission chairman Carlito Puno.

Puno wrote presidents of government schools and commission regional directors saying, "there will be no tuition and miscellaneous fee increases in state universities and colleges to make higher education accessible to a greater number of Filipino college students."

Last year, University of the Philippines president Emerlinda Roman proposed a 200- to 300-percent tuition increase next year for the state university, citing the shrinking government subsidy and UP''s failure to upgrade its socialized tuition program.

The proposal will bring the cost of UP education up from an average of P6,000 per semester to about P18,000.

Roman said UP lobbied strongly for an P8.5-billion budget. "But we never get what we want; and even if (Congress) increases the budget for education, a large part of it will go to elementary and high schools because they are free," she said.

Further, she said it was not covered by the law that government should provide free college education. She warned that all other state colleges may end up following UP''s example because of the government''s fiscal crisis.

Roman proposed an increase in fees of from P200 or P300 per unit to P1,000 in the Diliman, Manila and Laguna campuses. The smaller campuses in Baguio, the Visayas and Mindanao may see the per-unit fee increased to P600.

She said UP economists estimated that the P300 per unit tuition since 1989 is worth about P42 today.

"The university has been remiss because we have not adjusted tuition... and because of this, we haven''t reviewed the Socialized Tuition Fee Assistance Program, which reduces or removes the tuition obligations of poor students," Roman continued.

According to a primer issued by the UP Board of Regents, the eroded real value of tuition provides "unwarranted support today to students whose families can actually afford to pay the full cost of instruction."

"The rise in nominal incomes in almost two decades has resulted in fewer students qualifying for tuition discounts and stipends, from 34 percent in 1989 to only 5 percent qualifying in 2003 and 2004," the primer read. - Jasmin R. Uy/MEEV