DLSU to increase tuition fees by 4.8 percent next A.Y.

The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) has recently approved DLSU’s move to increase the tuition and fees by 4.8 percent next academic year. The announcement was made by University Student Government (USG) Office of the Treasurer (OTREAS) Chief-of-Staff Mark Tionson in the third Convention of Leaders held at the Teresa Yuchengco Auditorium last May 27.

Throughout the past academic year, the Multi-Sectoral Committee on Student Fees (MSCSF) held four meetings to deliberate on the tuition fee increase (TFI) and arrive at a proposal subject for approval by the Board of Trustees.

Meetings held in prep

The first meeting introduced the members of the committee to each other. Meanwhile, surveys and open forums were conducted to gauge the opinion of the student body on the matter.

Most of the proposals for the increase were given on the second meeting. OTREAS proposed a 0-2 percent increase in tuition and fees. The DLSU Parents of Students Organization (PUSO) recommended a 2 percent increase.  On the other hand, the faculty proposed a 6.91 percent increase, citing inflation, the effects of K-12 in the University, as well as ASEAN integration and the problem of retaining and acquiring new professors. The Faculty Association (FA) also said that inflation would be relevant, since election season was closing in at the time. Meanwhile, the administration initially proposed a 5 percent increase, citing K-12 as their grounds for the proposal. The Employees Association (EA) did not submit a proposal during the first meeting.

On the third meeting, the EA forwarded their proposal of a 5.95 proposed increase, calculated by getting the average of the percentages proposed by the FA and the administration.

While deliberating, the sectors found themselves facing a dilemma. The TFI could be too high that no freshmen would enroll, or too low that the faculty and employees would not be compensated.

The third meeting decided an increase of 4.8 percent for the following academic year. The faculty will also receive an across-the-board 5 percent increase in salary starting next year. This increase also applies to the University’s employee sector.

The recommendation was signed on the fourth meeting, with USG President Pram Menghrajani signing in behalf of the student body.

Proposals of the OTREAS

The committee also took into account the losses the University will incur under the current and future proposed TFI percentages.

Under the assumptions of a constant loss of P300 million per year, an increase in the number of enrollees per year, and an average of P60,000 tuition and fees per term, the OTREAS computed the following losses: around P56 million losses under a 2 percent increase, a loss of an estimated P41 million under a 3 percent increase, and a P27 million loss estimated on a 4 percent increase.

To compensate for the losses, two recommendations were made by the OTREAS. The available financial assets of the University could be looked into, and decide which is available to sell and to liquidate in order to recover the losses. Another recommendation was to use the interest income from assets available for sale, and use it to compensate for the losses.

“I want to protect the interests of not only the current students, but also the incoming students,” USG Executive Treasurer Zed Laqui said in a meeting with The LaSallian in February this year. He proposes that for the next years, the tuition fee increase must be less than 4.8 percent because of the effects of the K-12’s first year on DLSU.

Laqui, however, shared that he cannot promise that a smaller increase is sure to happen in the following years. He points out that the people in the committee change, and that there is no memorandum of agreement involved. It is possible that the committee members this year will not be the same set of people next year.

“As Executive Treasurer and a future economist, as I was computing I had to look at [the increase] in both micro and macro perspective,” Laqui explained. ”In my opinion, the next six years will be hard for OTREAS. The next Executive Treasurer will have a hard time defending the proposal in the committee since K-12 will only normalize by 2020-2021.”

Laqui also said that OTREAS will have initiatives this year in order to help the next Executive Treasurer. According to Laqui, among the future plans for OTREAS are a review of the miscellaneous fees, a cost of living study for the students which could be used for the tuition and fee increase research for the next year, financial assistance grants for students in need, a lower increase aimed for the next year, and the prevention of classes being dissolved.