New tuition hike unjustified, misleading, says youth party-list

Kabataan party-list on Tuesday denounced the move of the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) to approve the requests of 313 higher education institutions (HEIs) to increase tuition and other school fees by next academic year, calling the commission’s data “unjustified” and “misleading.”

In a statement, Kabataan Rep. Terry Ridon said the new wave of fee hikes would lead to “additional burdens to students and their families.”

“CHED has once again betrayed its constitutional mandate to ensure the affordability and accessibility of education,” Ridon said.

According to the CHEd statement released on Tuesday, school fees are expected to increase by an average of 6.48 percent in school year 2015-2016—an average of P29.86 per unit in tuition and P135.60 in miscellaneous fees. A total of 283 schools will implement tuition hike, while 212 schools will increase other fees.

READ: CHED allows tuition, miscellaneous fee hike in 313 private schools

Ridon called CHED’s data “misleading” for presenting absolute averages.

“By presenting the data in this manner, schools with high tuition and other fee increases can hide among schools that charge less,” he said. “The truth of the matter is that there are many private HEIs that charge well over P80,000 per semester in tuition and other school fees.”

Ridon also noted that the average increase in school fees is “over and beyond” the projected inflation rate in the country for 2015-2017, which was computed by the Philippine Statistics Authority at 2 to 4 percent.

“In so many ways, CHEd is trying to play with figures to justify the unjustifiable,” he said, adding CHEd should also have included the earnings of HEIs in its data.

In its statement, CHED said it based its recent approval of school fee hike on the criteria mentioned in Memorandum Order No. 3, series of 2012: Inflation rate, financial standing of the institution, financial capacity of the general [student body], impact of force majeure or calamities, quality track record of the school and the mission and vision of the institution.

“CHEd’s approach to the issue of tuition is holistic,” the statement read.

The number of HEIs that will be implementing tuition and miscellaneous fee hike next academic year is higher than last year’s 287 approved proposals.

READ: Student activists protest tuition hike of 287 colleges

“Whichever way you look at these new fee hikes, we will all arrive at the same conclusion: That they are all unjustified, exorbitant and pose a huge burden for many Filipino families come enrollment time,” Ridon said. RC