SILLIMAN UNIVERSITY (SU) may increase tuition fee by 10 percent starting June 2018 according to an advisory by the university last Jan. 26.
The advisory stated that the possible increase is only applicable for incoming enrollees and college students who will shift to a different academic program.
“Students who enrolled in Silliman before June 2018 and remain in the same course or program by the new school year will pay the same tutition as before,” it stated.
SU Vice President for Finance and Administration Atty. Fe Marie Tagle said the increase is needed to sustain the improvement of learning facilities and services for the incoming school year especially for students under the K to 12
program.
She added there will be changes in the curriculum of the different colleges, and professional courses will also be altered.
Freshmen college students will have General Education (GE) courses on top of their respective majors, Tagle said. She added that these courses are different from the usual arts subjects in college, since they are integrative.
“So they will have math, technology, application… It’s a different thing (from the arts subjects before). The usual [arts subjects] that we had is now in Senior High School,” Tagle said.
As for adjustments, Tagle said the administration will be imposing additional fees like graduation and diploma fees to programs like the Senior High School (SHS), who now have their own department.
“Naa man sila’y courses that they have their fees, we’ll be imposing those fees. Example, they will be having subjects like immersion. They will be charged for that,” Tagle explained.
Meanwhile, Tagle said the administration along with the SU Student Government (SUSG) will conduct another review of the costs next year to see if there is a need to adjust other fees.
“For the tuition, it’s an upward adjustment at this time. For the fees, it depends…So that the effect is zero effect, you will have increase in one and decrease on the other. But there may be a requirement to increase some fees, depending on the review,” Tagle said.
With the increase of the tuition fee, Tagle said budgets for colleges may also increase depending on the number of enrollees and available resources.
Target enrolment
While Tagle is sure the 10 percent increase in tuition can sustain the improvement of learning facilities and instruction, she said they still have to meet the target number of enrollees.
The target number of students for June is 2,000 for incoming freshmen in college and 2,000 for incoming students in SHS. However, if the targets will not be met, Tagle said there will be more pressure from the university’s outside sources like incomes from commercial buildings, donations, and grants.
As of press time, SU is awaiting approval from the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) for the tuition fee hike.
