The University of the Philippines (UP) president Danilo Concepcion reversed earlier decisions of most UP campuses to suspend the collection of tuition and other fees for the first semester of this academic year.
The memorandum, issued on Monday, a day before the start of registration for regular students, set the deadline for payment of fees on Aug. 25.
Concepcion said the memo “supersedes all previous issuances” on the issue.
Under the guidelines, the enrollment of students who applied for financial support and subsidy will be processed until the assessment of payment, even if the results of their application are still pending.
Results are expected to be released “days before” the August deadline.
In the meantime, graduate students and nonapplicants for financial assistance may immediately pay their assessed fees.
Clearer guidelines
Last month, UP Diliman Chancellor Michael Tan suspended the collection of tuition pending “clearer guidelines” on the Commission on Higher Education’s (CHEd) free tuition subsidy and the national government’s policy on free higher education.
Four other UP campuses—Manila, Los Baños, Baguio and Mindanao—soon followed suit.
Documents obtained by the Inquirer, however, showed that Concepcion had issued two different memoranda on the guidelines on tuition collection.
An earlier memorandum, PDLC 17-21, which was issued on July 28, said the students who applied for financial support would only have their subjects validated with the fee assessment to proceed once the application results were released.
A later memorandum, PDLC 17-21A that was posted on UP’s registration website, changed the guidelines, already ordering the assessment of payable fees.
The Inquirer reached Concepcion for comment but he has not replied as of press time.
Tan said the move to proceed with the assessment even without the results of the financial assistance application led to a lot of apprehension among students. —With a report from Maricar Cinco