Licuanan: Quality education ‘not cheap’

After admitting that it cannot do anything to stop private colleges and universities from raising their tuition, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) on Monday appealed to the public for understanding, saying that quality education has a corresponding price.

According to CHED Chairman Dr. Patricia Licuanan, concerns about tuition hikes should be balanced with the right of school owners for financial viability, saying that the commission is doing everything to keep increases in tuition and other fees at reasonable levels.

“This situation requires deft balancing between… accessible higher education and… financial viability of HEIs (higher education institutions). That’s why I am also appealing to parents and students to understand that quality education does have a price, it is not cheap,” Licuanan said.

“There are always differing views on this issue and we hear your message but there are other voices that also must be heard and, sometimes, we have to compromise,” she added.

Until her appointment as CHED chairman, Licuanan served as president of Miriam College, an exclusive Catholic school in Quezon City (Metro Manila).

Unlike state universities and colleges (SUCs) that are subsidized by the government, she said, private HEIs also bear the burden of salaries of their faculty members and the acquisition and upgrading of school equipment.

The commission said more than 300 HEIs nationwide have expressed their intention to hike tuition in June, adding that it expects the number to rise by Apri.

Meanwhile, Licuanan called on the HEIs to be “judicious” in hiking their fees.

Last year, 324 HEIs or 14.34 percent of the 2, 247 colleges and universities nationwide raised their fees with an average hike of P36. 93 per unit or an increase of approximately 10.62 percent nationwide.

Licuanan said that she was confident that school owners will heed her request to be judicious in hiking their fees because if they continue raising their fees every year, then they are likely to lose students to the SUCs, where the cost of education is less.

“While it is true that 88 percent of the HEI’s in the country today are privately-owned, their enrolment stood at only 60 percent and I think that’s because of the high cost of education in their institutions. If they priced themselves too high, they will loss students and more will go to the SUCs,” she added.

The Coordinating Council of Private Educational Association (Cocopea) also defended member-institutions who want to hike their fees.

Its Chairman and Emilio Aguinaldo College (EAC) president Dr. Jose Paulo Campos said that they are always judicious when it comes to tuition increases because they do not want to lose more students to public schools.

But he added that they also need to hike their fees to be able to catch up with rising cost not only in upgrading salaries of their faculty members but also in improving their facilities.

Under current guidelines, 70 percent of any hike in fee should go to teachers’ salaries, 20 percent to purchase or improvement of schools facilities and the remaining 10 percent to return on investment.

Cocopea members include Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines, Association of Christian Schools, Colleges and Universities, Philippine Association of Private Schools, Colleges and Universities, Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities and Technical Vocational Schools Association of the Philippines. –Sammy Martin, Manila Times