After several years of being criticized by various student groups in the University, the Socialized Tuition and Financial Assistance Program (STFAP) faced on December 13, 2013 its first set of major reforms under President Alfredo Pascual's administration. Now called"STS" or the Socialized Tuition System, the new tuition scheme was approved by the Board of Regents with the following reforms [1]:
1. Increased income thresholds for Brackets A, B, C, and D. Taking into consideration a 30% inflation from 2006 to 2012, income ranges except for Bracket E were adjusted in the following manner [2]: from P1 million and above annual household income to P1.3 million and above for Bracket A; from P500,000-P1,000,000 to P650,000-P1,300,000 for Bracket B; from P250,000-P500,000 to P325,000-650,000 for Bracket C; and from P135,000-P250,000 to P135,000-P325,000 for Bracket D.
2. Increased monthly allowance for Bracket E2 students. Monthly stipends have now been increased by P1,100 (45.83%) from P2,400 to P3,500 for Bracket E2, which includes students with annual household incomes of P80,000 and below.
3. Replacement and simplification of bracket indicators. Previously, four indicators were used to determine a student's bracket at the start of his/her stay in UP: 1) desired bracket; 2) declared household income; 3) the predictive income model; and 4) special indicators. Now, only two indicators will be used upon application for bracket assignment: 1) declared household income; and 2) the MORES 1SEC, which is based on household consumption or expenditures. As a result, the new STFAP application form has been reduced from 14 pages to 2 pages.
4. Decentralization of bracket appeals approval. [3] Aimed at speeding up the “appeals process” or “bracket re-assignment,” a process entered into by a student if he/she is not satisfied with his/her initial assigned bracket (using the bracket indicators which have now been reduced to two), the local OSSS (for Diliman) and OSAs (for other campuses) will now be in charge of granting bracket appeals instead of the System-level University Committee on Scholarships and Financial Assistance (UCSFA) which meets only thrice a year. Under the new System, the UCSFA will only receive reports and monitor implementation of the new STS.
5. Online STFAP application. Students may now use the Internet to fill up and submit the shorter STFAP application form, similar to how pre-enlistment is done online through the CRS. Documents required in the appeals process, however, will still have to be submitted in hard copy.
6. Lifting of "no pay, no admission" policy through amendments in the University Code. Under the newly amended Articles 330, 430, and 431 [4], “matriculation” has been reworded into “registration,” which includes only the usual enrollment process without payment. Under the previous vague provisions of the University Code, matriculation was understood by UP Manila to mean enrollment and payment, which led to the unit’s “no late payment” policy. This means that students may now be admitted to classes and continue their education without being forced to pay despite financial incapacity.
7. Zero interest for student loans contracted and paid within the same semester. [5] In addition to allowing for 100% tuition coverage for student loans, loans immediately paid within the same semester they were entered into by the student with the University will now incur zero interest. Loans paid thereafter will incur 6% interest per annum.
The reformed STFAP or STS will be implemented only for the freshmen or new students in AY 2014-2015. After a year’s evaluation, application to all undergraduate students will be considered. [5]
Our triumphs
In the context of widespread socioeconomic inequality and scarcity in the budget for UP, a socialized tuition scheme proves to be the most just and equitable mechanism by which the burden of tuition is distributed among students. Under socialized tuition, lower-income students receive greater subsidy than higher-income students. Indeed, unless free tuition for all becomes a reality, any flat-rate tuition policy will ultimately be worse for students when compared to a socialized tuition scheme.
However, like any other policy, the old STFAP had several imperfections. For years, UP ALYANSA has criticized the old STFAP especially in terms of its implementation. Running counter to its principle of equity, the old STFAP in fact discouraged many students who deserved to be in lower brackets from applying or appealing. Even if they did, students would be assigned to the wrong brackets and, worse, the bracketing itself has not caught up with prevailing economic conditions in the country. As for those who did not apply at all for a bracket, they were assigned "by default" to Brackets B or A, even if Filipino families earned an average annual income [6] of P206,000 - an amount that should put the average UP student under Bracket D with P300/unit as tuition. The result is a flat-rate tuition of P1,000 or P1,500 for students who did not go through the massive inefficiency and red tape of the old STFAP.
While the STS has yet to be tested for policy implementation, the reforms adopted by the BOR are victories of the students’ persistent demands for change in the University’s unjust, regressive, and flawed tuition scheme. This only proves that, beyond propaganda and empty opposition, student activism in UP can take the form of policy advocacy and proactive proposition.
Indeed, many of the approved reforms address the proposals forwarded by UP ALYANSA earlier this year [7], which echoed some proposals from BUKLURAN UP SYSTEM [8] and Prof. Richard Philip Gonzalo [3], as well as in previous years. In particular, the increased income thresholds per bracket is expected to move students from higher to lower brackets, which is essentially a bracket-targeted reduction in tuition (Reform #2). Also, the new instrument used for determining initial bracket assignments, the MORES 1SEC, is expected to be more in line with current economic conditions in the country, having been developed only in 2012. With this, the faulty predictive income model and other “special indicators,” which are the reason for different STFAP horror stories and jokes about cellular phones being the basis for imposing higher brackets, have been removed and replaced with a consumption-based index (Reform #7). The amendment introduced in Article 330, too, have essentially resulted in the repeal of the possible interpretation of a “no pay, no admission” rule in the said provision (Reform #1). Accordingly, while payment in installments has yet to be explored, amendments in Articles 330, 430, and 431 and the zero interest policy have collectively allowed a late/deferred payment option in theory for students (Reform #3).
Furthermore, in terms of efficiency, bracket assignment and re-assignment under the new STS are expected to be much faster than under the old STFAP. Online STFAP application(Reform #11) and the simplified STFAP application form are expected to remove the tedious encoding involved in yearly bracket assignment and thus drastically reduce the time for processing (Reform #5). Also, decentralization through transfer of jurisdiction over appeals from the hugely inefficient UCSFA to the local OSSS and OSAs (Reform #6) should also result in earlier releases of bracket re-assignment results. Under the old STFAP, appeals are often released after the semester for application. Thus, upon enrollment in the second semester, students who should in fact be under Bracket E are forced to pay or contract student loans when their tuition should have been free in the first place.
Not enough
UP ALYANSA welcomes these positive developments in the University's socialized tuition scheme; however, these reforms are not enough. For one, our tuition schedule remains to be regressive, with very little and insignificant changes. It is true that, under the new STS, everyone pays less; but it is also clear that the higher brackets continue to pay much less in terms of tuition-over-income ratios than the lower brackets. Indeed, on average [5], Bracket A students will pay only 0.06% of their annual income per unit; Bracket B students will pay 0.12%; Bracket C students will pay 0.14%; while Bracket D students will pay 0.16%. As we had proposed, the tuition schedule should be reformed to become progressive by either increasing income thresholds especially for the lower brackets or reducing tuition levels.
Further, the P1,100 increase in stipends for Bracket E2 students is but a less than P40 increase per day. Indeed, P3,500 a month will only cover only 23 days of 3 meals per day, assuming a decent meal is around P50. This calculation does not even account for academic needs and other living expenses. Under Prof. Gonzalo’s proposal [3], stipends for Bracket E2 students should have been increased to P11,750. Actually, under the proposal, stipends, though smaller, should have also been awarded to Brackets C, D, and E1.
Finally, while many of the reforms we forwarded have been approved, many issues remain to be addressed under the new STS such as transparency in implementation and applying the STFAP to graduate and second-degree students. Mid-year flexibility too is an issue for students whose families have fluctuating employment and income sources. While appeal may be made mid-year to the Chancellor and may be granted upon the Chancellor's decision, discretion must be minimized and a separate process should be institutionalized for mid-year re-assignment.
Thus, we continue to assert the need for the following reforms to the new Socialized Tuition System:
1. Development of a progressive tuition schedule by either increasing bracket thresholds or lowering tuition fees;
2. Prohibition of default bracket assignments;
3. Transparency in bracket assignment and re-assignment by providing detailed explanations upon release of results;
4. Flexibility through midyear bracket re-assignment in cases of unexpected changes in household income;
5. Equal application of STFAP even for graduate and second-degree students;
6. Stipends: increased allowance for Bracket E2 students, stipends for Brackets C-E1, and transportation allowance for freshmen from distant areas; and
7. Annual review of existing tuition policies and programs.
Thus, as we celebrate our victories in the new STS, our call continues for a just, progressive, and efficient socialized tuition scheme:
REFORM STS NOW!
[2]
According to Tinig ng Plaridel, Articles 330, 430, and 431 have been amended in the following manner:
Original Article 330:
No person who has not duly matriculated may be admitted to the classes. In exceptional cases, the Dean of Admissions may, on the recommendation of the Dean or Director concerned, authorize the admission of a visitor to a class for not more than five sessions.
Amended Article 330:
All students must be duly registered before they are allowed to attend classes. A student who is unable to pay the required tuition and other fees due to financial incapacity may apply for a loan from the Student Loan Board to complete the registration.
Original Article 430:
Students who are indebted to the Student Loan Board, their sureties and parents or guardians shall be notified that such indebtedness must be paid in full one month before the final semestral examinations begin.
Amended Article 430:
Students who are unable to settle their loan accounts with the Student Loan Board by the final due date shall be notified, together with their parents and/or guardians, of their past due obligations.
Original Article 431:
If a student fails to settle his account at the time herein provided, the faculty members should either bar the delinquent student from taking the examinations or, if they allow him to take the examinations, to withhold his grades - that is, instead of indicating the grades, the faculty members should write a note in the "remarks" column "Has account with the Student Loan Board." If the account is not settled by the opening of the following semester, the student may not be allowed to register.
Amended Article 431:
If a student fails to settle his or her account within a semester because of financial incapacity as attested to by his/her parent, guardian or professor, the University shall exert all efforts to provide him or her a scholarship or any form of financial assistance. In no instance shall a student be barred from attending his or her classes, nor his or her grades withheld due to non-payment of tuition and other fees. A student with outstanding loans shall be allowed to register in the next semester.
[5] Confirmed in a meeting between UP ALYANSA and UP President Alfredo Pascual (December 17, 2013).
[6]
