The Philippine Association of State Universities and Colleges (PASUC) has released a memorandum asking 111 state-owned schools to hold off on raising tuition fees.
The memorandum, released Saturday, asks SUCs to reconsider tuition fee increases. However, the PASUC memorandum is not binding and the association left the decision on whether to raise fees or not to the school boards.
National Union of Students of the Philippines president Victor Villanueva welcomed the move. “We pledge our support to the implementation of the PASUC memorandum by pressuring school boards across the country to abide through mass mobilizations,” he said.
Villanueva added private schools should also refrain from raising their fees. Citing data from the Commission on Higher Education, Villanueva said 451 private colleges and universities have asked the government for permission to raise fees. “Tuition rates in the country are already excessive. It is plain insensitive and brutal for private schools to increase rates any further,” he said in a Sun Star Online report.
