Manila: College education for 856,000 students in 453 state universities and colleges (SUC) will be free in 2017 as the two houses of Congress have allocated more funds to the education department for the move, proposed by President Rodrigo Duterte, senior officials said.
Congress allocated P8.3 billion (Dh610 million) that was initially set aside for development projects in the southern Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) to the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to fund the government’s first free college education initiative, said CHED chair Patricia Licuanan.
“The P8.3 billion is supposed to cover undergraduate tuition in all SUCs. The intention is all SUCs would no longer charge undergraduate tuition fees. All SUCs will be asked or instructed not to collect tuition fees next year,” said Licuanan, adding, “Free [college] tuition will allow families and students to spend more for other costs of college education.”
When asked how the funds will be allocated to all 453 SUCs, Licuanan said, “We will find a formula for this. Those who need it more will get more.”
CHED also received additional budget of P5.8 billion for the implementation of three ongoing student financial assistance programmes on national and local levels: P4.6 billion for the implementation of the recently legislated additional two years in high school and P763 million for advance research projects.
They are all included in the P3.35 trillion national budget that Congress ratified for 2017.
“Budget cuts imposed by previous administrations for the operation of SUCs nationwide forced SUCs to increase tuition fees and limit enrolment of students,” said CHED commissioner Prospero de Vera, adding, “The additional budget for CHED will implement President Duterte’s dream plan.”
Citing details, de Vera said that budget cuts forced the premier Quezon City-based University of the Philippines (UP) to hike its tuition fee by 300 per cent, from P300 to P1,000 per unit in 2007, and the Manila-based Eulogio Rodriguez Institute of Science and Technology implemented a 600 per cent tuition hike, from P15 per unit to P100 per unit, in the same period.
Student protest rallies prevented the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) from increasing its tuition fees by 525 per cent, said de Vera.
In 2007, UP admitted only 12,000 out of the 66,000 who took the entrance examination, while PUP admitted 13,000 out of 50,000 who took the entrance test, de Vera said.
