287 private schools get okay to increase tuition

Manila, Philippines – The Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) announced that 287 Private Higher Education Institutions (PHEIs) have been given the go-signal to increase their tuition and other fees this year. The increase will be an average of P35.66 per unit for academic year 2014-2015. But CHEd said, that the number of schools allowed to implement an increase in tuition fees have actually "decreased by four percent.” Last year, the petition of tuition fee increases of 354 PHEIs were approved, according to the Office of Student Services and Development of CHEd. The number of PHEIs that filed for a tuition fee increase this year is also lower — only 345 schools, from 451 in 2013. The data also showed that only 20 percent of the country’s 1,683 PHEIs filed a petition to increase fees. Only 17 percent (or 287 schools) were approved. Of the 287 schools, 64 of the PHEIs are in the National Capital Region, 30 in Region XI, and 26 in Region III. The average per unit tuition fee increase in the said regions are 6.05 percent in NCR, or P66.24; 9.33 percent in Region XI, or P36.22; and 9.30 percent in Region III, or P39.42. The average per unit increase in the three largest regions are: NCR P66.24 (6 percent), IV-A P51.04 (7.35 percent) and III P39.42 (9.3 percent). For this school year, the nationwide average tuition fee increase per unit is P35.66 (8.13 percent) while the nationwide average increase in other school fees is P141.55 (7.97 percent). IN ‘YOLANDA’ AREA Meanwhile, HEIs in Region VIII — which bore the brunt of Super-Typhoon "Yolanda” last year — posted no tuition and other fees increase. However, some schools in other Yolanda-affected regions including Region VI and VII were allowed to implement increase in fees. In Region VI, 24 out of the 25 HEIs that applied for tuition increase were approved, while in Region VII, 13 out of 15 HEIs were also given approval. CHEd said that there are around 3.43 million students at the tertiary level with 41 percent of 1.40 million are in public HEIs while 59 percent or 2.03 million are in private HEIs. Earlier, CHEd Chairperson Patricia Licuanan said the HEIs that have been approved to increase tuition complied with the requirements. Tuition increase, she explained, is a "balancing act” where the interests of both parties — schools and students — are carefully weighed. Since tuition increase might be inevitable due to changing factors that affect the education sector, Licuanan advised students and parents to "become good consumers of higher education.” Students and parents should try to have a better understanding about the "cost of education” for them to be informed and come up with "real choices,” she said. With the help of the Philippine Institute for Development Studies, Licuanan said that CHEd "has started developing a systematic, data-based, broadly acceptable framework for TOSF to guide the agency in deciding on a reasonable rate of increase each year.”//