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Colleges in Ilocos hike fees

SAN FERNANDO CITY, La Union (June 1) — Students in the Ilocos region will have to bear the brunt of “incessant” hikes in their matriculations as twelve out of 86 private schools in the region will increase their fees this coming semester.

The 12 private schools were “acknowledged” by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) regional office out of 26, which filed for intention to increase fees between February to May this year. Schools identified are Bacarra Medical Center School for Midwifery and College of Nursing, Data Center College of the Philippines, Divine Word College of Laoag (DWCL), and Northern Christian College (NCC), all in Laoag City. In Vigan City, the schools are Data Center College of the Philippines and Divine Word College of Vigan (DWCV) while in La Union, the two schools are Polytechnic College and Saint Louis College. In Pangasinan, schools allowed tuition hike are St. Columban College in Lingayen, Virgen Milagrosa University Foundation (VMUF) in San Carlos City, University of Pangasinan in Dagupan City and Pangasinan Colleges of Science and Technology (PCST) in Urdaneta City.

Bacarra Medical Center School will have the highest rate increase in tuition and miscellaneous fees by 50%, from P127.22 to P220.83. CHED clarified the school last hiked tuition fees five years ago and the “base line” (P127.22) is way below the tuition paid in bigger schools.

The University of Pangasinan has the lowest rate increase by 5%. Its tuition this year will go up to P351.69 from 334.94.

Four colleges reportedly withdrew their planned hike due to deficiency in documents required by CHED; Great Plebeian College, Palaris College, Philippine Colleges of Science and Technology and Divine Word College of Urdaneta (DWCU), all in Pangasinan.

Limits

“The rest of the schools were under review because their proposed rates were higher than the 8.5% national inflation rate cap set by the government,” said Celia Tactacan, supervisor-in-charge for tuition fees. The prevailing average tuition fee across the region this school year is P237.40 and the average proposed tuition increase is P264.08, CHED data show.

Tactacan said two private schools, Northwestern College in Laoag City and San Carlos College in Pangasinan, were ‘exempted’ from conducting consultations with stakeholders because their proposed hikes were below the inflation rate. One of the largest colleges here, Lorma Colleges of La Union failed to complete the CHED requirements for tuition hike.

CHED officials said they received only last week a letter requesting to review those proposed hikes higher than the 8.5% inflation rate.

Incessant

Higher educational institutions (HEIs) have fast become “milking cows” for owners, a militant student organization charged.

“Most of the private schools that annually increase their fees do not adhere to the 70-20-10 incremental proceeds from previous collections,” said Carlito Marquez, Pangasinan coordinator of the National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP).

In the new Circular Memorandum Order no.14, CHED upheld earlier provisions to distribute collection proceeds as follows: 70% for salary increase for employees, 20% for facilities and only 10% for the school’s profits.

Marquez said “The profits actually go to lavish lifestyles like out-of-town meetings and renovations while the students are left to bear with outmoded educational materials and facilities”. He said poor students in state-run colleges also suffer from “absurd” fees collected by school administrations.

Pangasinan State University (PSU) with eight campuses and an open university had increased its tuition by 25% from P75-P100 for incoming freshmen. Citing a P500 developmental fee paid every semester implemented by the PSU board of regents in 2003, Marquez said “it was meant to cover up for the huge losses from fruitless projects”. City College of Urdaneta (CCU), a local government-owned school hiked its tuition by 10% to P160 per unit.

Meager budget has forced state-owned schools to resort to fund generation projects instead of demanding higher budget from the national government to subsidize poor students, Marquez added.# Jhong dela Cruz for NORDIS

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