UP students denounce plan to increase tuition from P300 to P1,000 per unit

UP students, led by the Kabataan sectoral party - UP Diliman chapter, express strong condemnation to the UP administration' s recent proposal to increase tuition by 250 percent.

At the UP Oblation's statue, the university's symbol of academic freedom and service, the students hanged a huge tag price of P20,000.

The proposed increase is from P300 to P1,000 for every unit of tuition, and from P615 to P2,000 for miscellaneous fees. For an 18-unit regular load in UP, a student will then have to pay P20,000.

"This proposal is an outright attack to our right to education," said Carla Gonzales, coordinator for Kabataan-UP Diliman chapter.

"In the context of the present economic crisis that forces more and more youth to leave school, any form of tuition or miscellaneous fee increase will deprive more of us of the basic right to education," added Gonzales.

"The UP admin cites as primary reasons the inflation and the growing disparity of UP's tuition compared to other private universities.

"This is clearly an anti-student stand point. Knowing the burden that the continuous inflation has brought to the people, state universities should be even more accessible to the youth who deserve quality education," Gonzales explained.

"UP has been the dream of many underpriveleged families for their children. This tuition increase will shatter all these dreams."

The UP students then burned the huge tag price while hanged at Oblation's neck.

"We vow to never let the UP administration proceed with this fee increase. We will consolidate the support of all students and other members of the UP community to build the strongest opposition to this tuition increase proposal."

Kabataan party will join other student and UP groups in a mobilization on October 26, which will be held simultaneously at the administration buildings of different UP units nationwide. The UP board of regents will again tackle the tuition increase proposal in its October 26 meeting.