House sets 15 percent cap on tuition hikes

The House of Representatives has approved a bill that seeks to regulate tuition increases in primary, secondary and tertiary schools nationwide.

House Majority Leader Eduardo Gullas (LAMP, Cebu City) said the bill would protect students and their families from unreasonable and excessive increases in tuition and other school fees.

Under House Bill 12359, Gullas said the allowable increases in tuition shall not exceed 15 percent per year.

More important, he said the bill allows tuition increases only for incoming first-year students in secondary and tertiary schools as well as for grade one to five students in the elementary level.

Tuition increases may not be imposed on students on their second to fourth years in high school or college as well as those in 6th grade.

The bill further provides that other school fees shall not exceed 25 percent of a student’s tuition.

"This will discourage school owners from arbitrarily jacking up miscellaneous and other fees in order to recover profits forgone as a result of the limit on (tuition) fee increases," Gullas pointed out.

It was Gullas himself, who is also president of the board of trustees of the University of the Visayas in Cebu City, who authored HB 12359.